Shelter in Place

One minute they were alive, and the next minute they were all dead.

Yes, we had still another mass shooting in America.

For some stupid reason I thought we might have gotten a break after the Paris slaughter, but it seems like the madness is escalating, gathering momentum like a boulder tumbling down a mountain.

So now we have even more names to add to the list of victims--husbands, wives, sons, and daughters--who were taken away far too soon. We have more smiling photos of people of all races and creeds who have been savagely gunned down.

I want to know all their stories, I want to reach out to all their families and feel what they’re going through, but there have been so many victims my mind is ready to explode.

I scroll through the photos and my heart breaks again and again.

Terms like “soft target,” “active shooter” and “shelter in place” have worked their way into our language and no one seems to have a problem with that.

Various news programs and police departments around the country have created videos detailing what to do if you’re caught in a mass shooting. It’s like a fire drill or the old atomic bomb attack scenarios from the Cold War. And I watch them because I’m afraid not to.

The killers this time were a husband-and-wife terrorist team who murdered 14 of the husband’s coworkers at a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif.

Bang, Bang, Shoot, Shoot

News reports say the husband became “radicalized” by his wife, as if he caught the jihad bug like it was a case of the measles. I have trouble accepting this idea that you can be hypnotized into committing mass murder.

We’re exposed to all kinds of toxic beliefs every day of the week; if you choose to act upon on them, well, that’s your choice, isn’t it? And I wonder why the husband couldn’t “de-radicalize” his wife—convince her that shooting innocent people to death isn’t a nice thing to do.

I’m trying not to go on another useless rant about gun violence in America, but it’s hard to keep your temper when you see just how easily—and legally—these two psychopaths obtained their brutal weapons.

Incredibly—and I do mean incredibly-- Senate Republicans, including four of the assholes running for president, actually voted against barring suspected terrorists, felons and the mentally ill from getting guns.

Radical Islamic leaders have been urging American sympathizers for years to exploit the nation’s lax gun laws for domestic terror attacks. Looks like the homegrown jihadists have finally clued in.

And, insanely, all of the GOP candidates are ramping up the tough guy talk, demanding war, while studiously ignoring the need for gun control in this country.

Where the hell do we invade? The husband in the California shooting was from Illinois. Are we going to bunker buster the Midwest? No, this is just stupid talk for a woefully ignorant population.

I worry about going out to the movies, parades or any other event where there will be large crowds of people. When will my number come up, when will the next jihadist or gun-toting loner burst into the restaurant, theater or office and start shooting?

So is this really the new normal? Will we before forever caught between extremists and the hack political whores who keep arming them?

I’m so sick and tired of looking at all those dead people.