Save Your Prayers

In the aftermath of yet another mass shooting in America, more meaningless words, more expressions of sadness, the offering of prayers.... but, once again, no action.

The Senator from Sandy Hook made his feelings about such meaningless tripe quite clear in comments made following the San Bernardino shootings on December 2nd.  

Your "thoughts" should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your "prayers" should be for forgiveness if you do nothing - again.

The Guardian ran a lengthy article that showed, in graphic form, all the mass shootings that have occurred in the USA over the past 3 years. The article was titled: "1052 Mass Shootings in 1066 Days. This is What America's Gun Crisis Looks Like".

America obviously has a gun crisis, as the graph above clearly shows. Mass shootings are only one part of the problem. The Gun Violence Archive has much of the data, but the yearly numbers tell as much of the story as is needed. In 2015 (so far) there have been 12,282 gun-related deaths. In 2014, there were 12,469 deaths. Each day, in 2013, there were about 30 deaths.

A report by NBC laid out the shocking statistics this way.

And of course, these are only the deaths.  Each year, over 100,000 people are shot.

These are figures that would be "normal" in a Third World Country, or perhaps a war zone.  Not in a so-called First World Country like the USA.  

It boggles the mind that, faced with this crisis, that there hasn't been an enraged public driving American legislators to do something.  But that hasn't happened.  Even the President seems to be resigned to the sorry situation.  Perhaps the main reason why inaction has been the policy is illustrated by this image:

One source has listed all the members of Congress who have basically been bought off by the NRA.  The gun lobby bleats on about 2nd Amendment Rights, or "God Given Rights", or that "guns don't kill people.  People kill people."  Obviously following this flawed logic, the Senate just recently defeated a bill that would have tightened up background checks and made it more difficult for individuals on "terrorist watch lists" to obtain guns.

Of course, there has been plenty of talk about terrorists.  Especially Muslim terrorists.  Especially those supposedly hiding among masses of Syrian refugees.  

It is a sorry state of affairs when the images above really, truly, represent the reality in America today.

Don't keep telling us that gun controls don't work.  They obviously do work.  Just take a look at Japan, at Australia .... so many examples.

What gives America?  Are your citizens worth so little?

NOTE:  There have been many stories about gun violence in the USA.  Some recent ones include this one from the CBC, and this personal account from a CBC journalist.