Do not clean it up.
Advertisement
Those who say nothing can be done to prevent gun violence, or that criminals will get guns whatever the laws are, or especially those who argue ignorantly that more guns are the answer, have blood on their hands.
In the close-knit community of Roseburg, large crowds turned out for a candlelight vigil for the victims of Thursday’s killing spree at Umpqua Community College, which ended with the assailant dying during a shootout with police. “It’s my son’s birthday, it’s my son’s birthday” he repeated as he bled on the floor.
The president lamented how such events had become “routine” and cited the terrifying statistic that “there is a gun for roughly every man, woman and child in America”. He has dealt with and talked about a lot of the other issues.
“You’re not going to change the Second Amendment“, he said.
“This is not the way the United States should be operating”, Obama said, adding, “I want ot be clear”. In the U.S., people have a greater chance of dying in mass shootings if they are at work or at school.
“We have to stop shooting at each other….”
A bill will be introduced in Congress to strengthen gun laws, but it will wither and die. “It is our freedom that allows insane individuals to kill so many people”. That’s inexplicable to me, as inexplicable as it is having Marines or Navy personnel or military people at recruiting stations without guns. It does not discriminate. Nothing but crickets. Why, you may ask. Why not take them on? A little over a month ago, a reporter was executed on live television.
“Nobody is safe from this”. “But we are going to have to change our laws”. And no wonder. He was president when James Holmes killed 12 people in a movie theater. “This is happening every single day”, he said. This is a mental health problem, too, and that issue along with access to firearms must be addressed on a broad front.
Rev. Sharon Risher lost her mother and two cousins at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The only thing that really changes in all of this is the death toll.
Colin Goddard was shot during the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007, where 32 students, faculty and staff were killed. Because it’s ridiculous to punish law-abiding citizens for the actions of people that break the law by driving drunk. In fact, the professional advocates have already taken it into account-as Molly Ball reported in 2013, they’ve adopted language meant to be more value- (and fear-) neutral: “gun violence”, “reducing gun violence”, “gun-violence legislation”. “I would like us to be absolutely determined, as I am, to try to do something about this”, Clinton said. If not, voters should send a message to their elected officials, he said. But based on my experience as president, I can’t guarantee that. And so have many of you.
“This is a political choice we make”, Obama said.
Mike Huckabee said on Twitter Thursday that the president was “quick to politicize this tragedy to advance his liberal, anti-gun agenda”.
Advertisement
Dylann Roof, the Emanuel AME shooter, should not have been legally able to purchase the gun he used, but got it due to a clerical error.
