There have been well over 1,000 shootings in the month since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary that took the lives of 20 children and six teachers and administrators.
President Obama included remarks about the Newtown shootings and the need to do something about gun violence in his second inaugural speech last week, and his proposals to that end a few days before.
Last night, a 15 year old girl who performed at President Obama's inauguration became another victim of gun violence. Hadiya Pendleton was shot to death in a park just blocks from her high school in Chicago.
Today, as the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence was getting underway in Washington, a hostage situation was taking place that began last night in Alabama, when a man boarded a school bus, shot and killed the driver, and then took a 6 year old autistic boy off the bus and held him hostage overnight. (As of this writing, the situation was ongoing.)
And as that incident was playing out in Alabama, one of that state's Senators, Republican Jeff Sessions, was busy siding with NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre during the hearing as they both challenged a Baltimore police officer who said LaPierre's viewpoints on gun ownership and the enforcement of gun laws were “scary, creepy, and simply just not based on logic.” In that particular exchange, LaPierre's comments reflected his view that new laws weren't necessary because existing laws simply aren't being enforced anyway. Never mind that Republicans in Congress and the powerful gun lobby have blocked any hope of confirmation of an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms director for over six years, which would certainly help.
Not that enforcement will get any easier if Republicans have anything to do with it. Consider this blatant, and egregious statement from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in his attempt to twist logic to not only take a stand for the NRA, but to make assurances that the threat to public safety from gun violence will only get worse, with his assistance.
Graham stated that he would oppose any gun violence measures because of the increased need for weapons with high capacity magazines in order for people to defend themselves. Why the increased need for self defense? Because of current gun law enforcement problems and slow police response times due to budget cuts. And who is making those budget cut decisions? Why that would be Lindsey Graham, and he all but promised more in the future:
[...I can tell people throughout this land, because of the fiscal state of affairs we have, there will be less [SIC] police officers, not more, over the next decade. Response time are gonna be less, not more.
To make matters worse, Graham assured everyone at the hearing that he was being completely reasonable in saying this.
Feel safer yet?
Yes. Republicans showed this morning that they have tossed sanity completely out the window and are willing to stand alongside the likes of the unhinged NRA man Wayne LaPierre. As expected, LaPierre stood fast in saying that enacting new laws wouldn't change a thing, that guns aren't the problem, and that a person's right to own an assault rifle or any other weapon is more important than the general public's rights to be safe. Never mind that those rights aren't being infringed in any way, and no one is proposing to do so. Facts have no place in his arguments.
Universal background checks at gun shows? Who needs them? Besides, he says that criminals never buy guns at gun shows anyway, according to....no actual statistic anywhere. (The NRA has successfully blocked any studies that would show such a thing.)
And of course, the only "logical" answer to the current school massacre problem, as always, is just more and more guns! And, not that anyone asked, but LaPierre just happens to have the perfect solution: His NRA backed proposal to put armed guards in every school in the country, and of course, sell more guns in the process.
Ka-ching.
At this point, I would actually like to thank Lindsey Graham, his Republican colleagues, and the likes of LaPierre, for what they demonstrated today at the hearing.
Because if there was ever a time when we needed to enact more strict gun laws and ban certain weapons that have no good or logical reasons to be on the street, it's now, and if there was anyone who didn't get that before today, they did today.
It's no longer just an issue of keeping guns out of the hands of those who are mentally unstable, or those who just don't give a thought to the safety of others. It's a question of the state of mind of Republican lawmakers who are telling us that the lives of our children, and every one of us mean nothing to them. Nothing. It's that one of their own, Gabby Giffords, life has been forever changed doesn't even seem to phase them. That no common sense safety measure or change to a law, no matter how small, can be made. Not even the horror stories from Newtown can break through what has become a barrier of utter crazy: the GOP.
Today any appearance of logic went out the window on that side of the aisle, and made it that much more clear that we need to stand with the adults that were in that hearing room today. We have to fight back, not with guns and violence, but with common sense. The gun manufacturers and the lawmakers that do their bidding have no interest in protecting our children, or anyone else. The only thing that motivates them is the sale of yet another gun.
Because that's where we are. This is insanity.
