Another Day, Another Senseless Act

Another day, and yet another random act of gun violence in the United States. This time is was terrifyingly caught on live television.  The killing was quick and pre-planned.  The gunman was your average guy who was angry and had access to a firearm so he decided to take his revenge on 3 innocent people who got up this morning and went to work.  So sad!

As I'm sure you are, I'm stunned and horrified by this morning's murder of a television anchor and her cameraman, and the injury to their guest all caught on camera.  I haven't been able to shake thinking about it all day.  And I just keep thinking, what if this guy never had access to a gun? What if he wasn't able to go to a store, fill out a form and buy the murder weapon? Could that have possibly saved the victims?

I work with a lot of ex-military guys who think that this line of thought is utterly ridiculous. They believe everyone should have access to a weapon and if everyone were allowed to carry one, there'd be less killing than there already is. I completely and whole-heartedly disagree with their reasoning.  

I get the argument that it's the crazies with the guns that are the problems and that the guns aren't actually killing people, people are, but how is giving people access to more guns making the crazies any less crazy?  They just have better access to steal them from a normal everyday person who may have one in their house.  Oftentimes, the violence, like this morning's incident, is so quick and so callous, that there isn't any time to defend against it. No extra gun would have helped in this morning's situation.  That's just the truth.

I'll leave you with this thought from an article I read regarding the botched terror attack on a European Train: "It's funny that one of the only terror attacks that have been stopped in the last few years, was thwarted by a few Americans carrying no weapons whatsoever."

My heart goes out to the victims' family and friends.