This anniversary might as well have no marker and no
memorials. The opportunity to bring
about meaningful changes in American gun laws and arms dealing has once again
fallen prey to the fear mongering and blatant lies promulgated by the NRA and
its GOP/teavangelist minions.
Yet, we must
be honest in our post mortems of gun related murders. The latest shooter, in Centennial Colorado,
obtained his shotgun and ammunition by entirely legal means. Further, he was not under treatment for any
form of mental illness that would mark him as a potential mass murderer. The difficulty in predicting which teen or
young adult will suddenly convert from a normally moody or angst-ridden teen
into a calculating killer is immense. We
simply have no way to separate most of the potential murderers from the pack of
video-gaming gun-owning people who don’t decide to shoot up a building full of
unsuspecting innocents.
The mass
marketing of guns in America is a major obstacle in preventing some, but not
all, such events. The majority of
Americans would agree with and support limits on magazine capacity and
requiring background checks for all gun sales.
Most of us have no problem with closing gun show loopholes. However, the NRA does and the help of a
Congress greedy for campaign funds, they have managed to block any meaningful efforts
to decrease gun-related murders in 2013.
Yes, there are prisons, many owned and staffed by
corporations. They are competing among
the prison industry to find the cheapest level of funding required to maintain
these American gulags. There is still
much they may borrow from the Russians and third world nations concerning penal
systems. Never fear, those methods will
likely be imported to our corner of the globe.
Yes, there
are also workhouses. They include
Wal-mart and the various fast food chains.
Like Dickensian workhouses, these too ensure that the workers will never
be paid enough to escape their poverty.
Ghosts of Christmas past don’t trouble me but we have every reason to
worry about the all too real future.
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