That’s the Cure All……..More Guns

Last night, Lawrence O'Donnell,had former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark) as his guest to explain the results of his NRA funded report on school safety. Lawrence was rather rude to his guest, but I think it was due to the frustration of this issue. I think a lot of us knew what the answers would be before the NRA commissioned the 12-person task force to find a reason ,other than guns,to stop the needless killing. They didn’t disappoint; their conclusion: arm teachers and loosen gun laws that restrict people from carrying a firearm on school property. They also recommended training interested school personnel (40-60 hours of gun training) and then the schools should be willing to arm them.

Earlier in the day, Asa Hutchinson told a CNN pundit that he would consider a universal background check that exempted sales between family members. That exception for family members is a gigantic loophole that the gang bangers will use in Chicago and New York.  The uncle in the drug cartel would like to pass off a lot of guns to his family members.Oh the inconvenience of a typical five-minute  background check. When my daughter gave me her used pick-up truck, we had to drive downtown, look for a parking place, stand in line and finally produce our proof of insurance before we were allowed to pay the transfer fee. That’s we do in a civilized society. We willingly comply to help the system work more efficiently.

When Mr. Hutchinson was told that Connecticut was likely to ban high-capacity  magazines and assault weapons; he said that it was totally inadequate because it doesn't protect children. Mr. Lawrence angrily corrected Mr. Hutcheson, telling him that children need to also be protected when they are at malls or in movie theaters. Lawrence also reminded Mr. Hutchinson that Columbine had armed school guards.  Mr. Hutcheson used response time as his selling point but every mass shooting I have read about, the first responders got to the scene in less than 10 minutes. Adam Lanza was able to fire off more than 150 rounds in 5 minutes, and you are telling me than an armed teacher would stand a chance?They might stand a chance if you are going to equip them with the same weapons and not worry about innocent bystanders.

It’s frustrating to see a popular background check measure being sabotaged by the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. “ Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee — all Tea Party favorites — say they will "oppose any legislation that would infringe on the American people's constitutional right to bear arms or on their ability to exercise this right without being subjected to government surveillance." A filibuster is just a cowards way of avoiding of getting on the record as one who opposes the will of the people for their political expediency. The Second Amendment is settled law and not even the partisan NRA is using that argument. I’ll go on the record offering a cash reward to anyone who can find one word that evenly remotely suggests taking a law abiding citizen’s gun away. For the paranoid,that slippery slope will always be there.

John Boehner considers himself a shrewd politician because he took the easy way out. He won’t allow a gun bill to come up in the House until the Senate passes one allowing his members to go unscathed. Hopefully, the voters will be smarter than that in the mid-term elections because only 33% of American household's own guns.

By the end of the week, Connecticut will join New York and Colorado as states not bending to the wishes of the NRA and enacting some of the toughest gun laws in our country.

In the meantime the crazies will dominate the headline news and I’ll leave you with one. “Serbu Firearms used Thomas’s image in a t-shirt and Facebook campaign, using the phrase “No Serbu for you!” to mimic the Soup Nazi’s famous expression, “No soup for you!” from Seinfeld. In protest of the recently enacted Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act–which prohibits private citizens from owning certain assault weapons–Serbu has refused to sell semi-automatic sniper rifles to the New York City Police Department.

“I refused to sell my rifles to the NYPD, and when I talked about it online, it blew up like crazy,” company founder Mark Serbu told The New York Post Tuesday. “Everybody liked the idea of a gun law biting the government on the ass. There are only two manufacturers of semi-automatic 50-caliber rifles in the U.S., and neither will sell to the NYPD. This is like, ‘Screw you, New York.’ People are less safe without our rifles to protect you.”

I don’t know about you, but I want law enforcement to have better weapons than criminals. We have DAs and law enforcement dying for doing their job, and we are left without a clue as who committed these crimes but some are fighting tooth and nail to make background checks less disruptive and make law enforcement and government the enemy.