Stop with the Worthless, Self-serving "Thoughts and Prayers"!! WE NEED POLICY AND ACTION!

 

It's appalling. Another school mass shooting. ENOUGH. Enough with the fake and worthless "thoughts and prayers"! Nothing has failed us more than stupid thoughts and prayers. We need policy and action. When you vote for politicians that are against gun control, you become part of the problem, you are responsible for the number one kid killer: gun violence.

Republicans and the NRA are AGAINST Safety and Common Sense

Another mass shooting, in Las Vegas this time, the deadliest in our history, until the next one of course. Our fundamental right to be safe is trampled by the right of people to own military-grade weapons according to the NRA, most Republican leaders (not necessarily their base), and a conservative judiciary.


So, what else is in the news? Oh, hurricanes, flooding, and lots of human suffering. It must be God's will. Let's all pray so we can change his mind to either not indiscriminately punish his creation and/or help the victims. Well, good luck with that! 

But, the humans who could do something about it--I'm talking about the elected representatives--are failing to do much in terms of safety and to alleviate suffering. 

Those leaders are concentrated in the Republican party which is clearly anti-safety.They want to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), take away health care, deregulate pollutants, kill consumer protection laws, and are against any sensible programs that reduce violence, poverty, and help people live longer and healthier.

This essentially the party that claims to be the guardian of law and order and national security but in reality it's really bad for people's health and safety!

As the stories and pictures of the Vegas shooting begin to emerge, I leave you with the young faces of the Sandy Hook children, as a horrific reminder of how a society has been allowing WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) to be readily available.

Gun Violence in America: Why "Good Guys with Guns" Isn't the solution...

Another shooting at a school today, 2 adults 1 child dead. This latest gun violence incident by an estranged husband who killed his wife in an elementary school classroom also took the life of an innocent student. The perp had a history of domestic violence and weapons charges, but of course in the US obtaining a gun is not hard.

In December 2012, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place where 26 children and staff were killed. In a disgraceful response the NRA and many conservatives repeated the mantra, "a bad guy with a gun can be stopped by a good guy with a gun." Dangerous simpletons.

I just found this clip and I think it's worth sharing.

Is the US Condemned to High Levels of Violence? Meanwhile, another Mass Shooting in Dallas...

Mass shootings keep taking place, and gun violence is, sadly, part of everyday life here in the US. We are a violent country, but why? And, is it something we can change? Or, do we want to change that? After all, guns are connected to freedom! We need guns to fight the government, aliens, zombies, and whatever else Apocalypse may bring.

 After a deadly shooting, gun sales increase. The NRA is happy, and it has a hold on politicians. Do you know that Congress has  barred the Center for Decease Control (CDC) since 1996--when the NRA accused the CDC of being anti-gun--from doing research into gun violence, because, heck, it may lead to findings favoring gun control. Facts and science should inform public policy, right?... Since 2012, President Obama tried to reverse this, but...

The American Medical Association (AMA) has reversed its position though and now calls Congress to allow the CDC to do research into gun violence as a public health issue! 

Again, the lethal effect of powerful weapons and their availability is a big factor in US violence. I do not see why the "right" to own a gun should be above the right of others to have a ..healthier life!  We do have restrictions on all sorts of weapons not available to civilians. The right to live your life the way you want has to taken into account your actions as a direct impact on others. You can't do all sorts of things if your actions harm the community. You can't drive a car without a license, no insurance, and without emission controls. You can't cut down every tree or take every fish out of the sea. You shouldn't have certain weapons, certainly not open or conceal carry.

A Culture of Guns Feeds the Kind of Violence We Just Witnessed in Orlando. Which God Instructs His Children that Homosexuality is a Horrible Sin Worthy of Death?

If only there was another good person with a machine gun, or at least an assault automatic weapon to take down the Orlando shooter before he killed all those good people. Same, with all the other instances where unarmed civilians are gunned down by crazies all of our beloved country of ours. 

Now, I'll keep a moment of silence, after which I'll pronounce that my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. All of these acts, of course, will do nothing to help the past, present, and future victims of gun violence. 

The NRA is defending the interests of the gun sellers and manufacturers not the gun owners. It gets support from knuckleheads who believe that the more guns the more freedom people have. This is a libertarian paradise where the enemy is always the government, the communists and the non-xtians. Except we had this ...paradise in the early days of our republic--where Trump wants to take us back to--and it didn't work.

Yes, a gun in the hands of a good person may stop a bad person with a gun, but there are downsides as the proliferation of guns leads to more deaths. This is a fact. I include deaths from disputes with people having access to deadly weapons, suicides, children who shoot themselves or others, etc. There's no good reason, in my mind, why civilians should have access to assault rifles and high powered guns with big ammo clips. Such weapons must be banned. And, yes, it can be done in these United States if we wanted to. We have had a violent past (and present), a history of the vast frontier, wild men and untamed nature. But, so was Australia. They banned most weapons there and they have a huge reduction in crime involving firearms. 

Now, there's another sensitive issue in relation to the mass shooting in Orlando on Sunday. Many have said that the crazy gunman may had been offended by the gay culture but, guess what, his actions had nothing to do with religion!

Really?! All three Abrahamic religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--teach that homosexuality is an abomination, a sin, worthy of the most severe punishment in human societies and in hell. The Abrahamic god is not tolerant, or loving, but angry, petulant, vindictive against the children of his creation, who are designed with imperfections and are worthy of condemnation and punishment of death for exercising their right to pursuit of happiness.

If you still choose to remain silent, sorry to say, you're part of the problem and for perpetuating violence and primitive superstitions. 

Update 6/14/16: This video by Samantha Bee just came out and it nails the points I'm making here.