Gun Battle

And now another massacre…

Once again we’re watching footage of sobbing victims, listening to recordings of frantic 911 calls and viewing news coverage of candlelight vigils. It’s getting harder and harder to tell these incidents apart.

After the mass shooting at the “The Dark Knight Rises” premier, you can be sure of two things: nothing will be done to change the gun laws in this country and there will be more massacres like this, more images of murderous loners, and more eulogies for innocent victims.

According to news reports, the gun murder rate in the U.S. is at 19.5%, almost 20 times higher than the next 22 richest nations combined. But at least we still have our freedom.

The NRA has won this battle. Virtually no one on the national level is even talking about gun control despite a string of these hideous attacks. The Republicans are on the gun lobby pay roll and the Democrats are scared of their own shadows. God damn the whole pack of them.

You already know the arguments: gun laws infringe upon our God given right to kill each other in great numbers. I'm sure the Founding Fathers must be very proud of us.

I can’t believe I live in a country where this kind of madness is allowed to continue. When there was a mass shooting in Australia several years ago, lawmakers convened the next day to pass stringent gun laws.

Cold, Dead Fingers

The gun nuts cling to this wet dream that everyone should be packing heat so that we can all return fire should an armed psycho start picking us off.

Let’s have a rendezvous with reality, shall we? First of all, most of these fearless gunslingers would crap their pants and dive under the nearest chair screaming for their mommies as soon as the shooting started. The others would no doubt go berserk, filling the air with lead and gunning down even more innocent people.

Ironically, I spent a good part of the week trying to get my hands on a toy gun. I’m directing a scene for my film class where a character pulls a gun on another. I didn’t think I’d have any problem getting hold of an ersatz heater, but I was wrong.

While many of my favorite toys were guns when I was growing up, the days when you can pick up a realistic looking toy are long gone.

I ordered a toy pistol through Amazon and hoped that it would arrive in time and look realistic. While I waited, I checked with a movie gun rental place, searched the Internet, and even asked my boss if his kids had any toy guns that I could borrow. Nothing panned out.

The Amazon gun came last night and it’ll do just fine. But it amazes me that I had to go through all this trouble to get a toy while that psycho in Colorado was able to get all this firepower so easily.

So welcome to a world where a movie theater can be turned into a slaughterhouse. Get ready for more speeches, more grisly footage and more candlelight vigils.

Comments

Ron said…
Love the passionate way you expressed this post, Rob! And I couldn't agree with your more. How many more times does something like this have to happen before this country (in its UNITY), starts cracking down on gun regulations??

This whole thing in Colorado is not only disturbing, but incredibly heartbreaking.

"But it amazes me that I had to go through all this trouble to get a toy while that psycho in Colorado was able to get all this firepower so easily."

A-MEN! AMAZING!

I'm glad to hear that NY is one of the smarter and stricter states in this country. We ALL need to be.

Have a great week, buddy. And I hope your having an excellent time in your film class!
Rob K said…
Hey, Ron, thanks for the good wishes. I'll never understand the mindset of people who think that we don't need tougher gun laws. It's just insanity and we're all paying a terrible price for it. Take care, buddy, and keep your head down!
Isn't it crazy?? I do understand the theory behind the 'don't give children guns' argument, but in truth, we all played with guns as kids here in England and very, very few grew up to own and use real guns. Here, of course, it's the other way round: you easily can get hold of toy guns, but not real ones. OK, so the toy guns have become fantasy guns, usually bright colours or SF style, but you can get them. However, even sportsmen - even Olympic standard marksmen - have to follow stringent rules about owning and using guns and those rules are enforced.

Sure, we do still have occasional shootings here because, you know, there IS the black market... but there are few streets here where a gun is owned, unlike some parts of the US where there are probably few streets where a gun is NOT owned.

I think the scariest thing about US gun ownership is that many people simply do not know how to use them. Let me ask this: in cases where a homeowner (or potential victim) has had the chance to use a gun, how often has it led to the desired outcome? How many of these mass murders have been prevented because someone present had a gun and used it properly?
Rob K said…
That's a very good question, Jay. A retired Chicago police detective recently wrote an editorial for the NY Times warning about the dangers of an armed populace. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/opinion/armed-but-not-so-safe.html?_r=1

But what's the use? The NRA has its hooks into the politician and they'll keep spewing their lies after every one of these massacres. It's a pretty sick country.
Jay said…
The NRA seems to be a very, very scary organisation looking at it from across The Pond.
Rob K said…
It's a hell of a lot scarier up close and poison-al!

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