How many more mass murders do we need before we finally decide to have sensible gun control policies? When will we stop believing the cliché “Guns do not kill people? People do”? We need a new one. Guns do not kill people. Policies allowing people to use guns indiscriminately do.
Incidences like Aurora Colorado highlight our gun control problem and gets lots of coverage because it occurs where we think it shouldn’t. It suddenly makes a lot of us feel insecure. It is at a place we frequent.
That said if you think a bit deeper, we see that this is an ongoing problem nationally. It just does not get covered. In 2009 (last available completed year from the CDC) an average of 31 people were murdered with guns every day. 11,493 American citizens were killed with a gun in 2009. In the UK there were 39 murders by firearm in 2009. Canada had 144.
We do not know why the killer in Colorado did what he did. One thing we know is that many Americans are over armed as if they are in some constant state of danger. This is worrisome for several reasons. We have a lot of economic problems. These economic problems are falsely framed by many politicians and plutocrats.
Because of the false and biased information from our leaders, we have a very misinformed citizenry. These massacres will seem like child’s play if we do not soon get our house in order soon.
Two things can occur in our very well citizen armed country. If citizens realize that they were pilfered by a few and have no way out, they just may attack the pilferer. Alternatively, if the pilferers continue to successfully deflect blame to “others”, they may simply edge citizens into shooting each other, a civil war on false pretenses that they finance on both sides.
This story will die in a week. Let us hope we continue to work and ensure those that continue to die because of bad policies are eventually vindicated. Please like my Facebook page and follow my tweets for postings I do not put on our Coffee Party site for editorial reasons.
LIKE My Facebook Page
Follow @EgbertoWillies
Gunman kills 12 in Colorado movie theater
By Chelsea J. Carter and Michael Pearson, CNN
updated 11:26 AM EDT, Fri July 20, 2012
(CNN) — A heavily armed gunman attacked an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater early Friday, tossing tear gas before opening fire on the terrified audience and killing 12 and wounding 38, authorities said. The theater was showing the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises."
One of the injured was just 3 months old, hospital workers said.
The shooting unfolded inside a darkened theater packed with Batman fans, some in costume for the movie’s premiere. Screaming, panicked moviegoers scrambled to escape from the black-clad gunman, who wore a gas mask and randomly shot as he walked up the theater’s steps, witnesses said.
The shooter used at least four guns — an "AK type" rifle, a shotgun and two handguns, a federal law enforcement official told CNN. The official also said the shooter used tear gas.
Shooting turns movie into surreal horror: ‘This is real’
Police quickly arrested a man believed to be the shooter in a rear parking lot of the theater, Frank Fania, a police spokesman, told CNN.
"He did not resist. He did not put up a fight," Fania said. Police seized a rifle and a handgun from the suspect, and another gun was found in the theater, he said. It was unclear where law enforcement found a second handgun.
Two federal law enforcement sources involved in the investigation identified the suspect as James Holmes, 24, of Aurora, Colorado.
The suspect was tentatively scheduled to appear in a Colorado courtroom on Monday, although no formal charges have been filed, according to the Colorado Office of the State Court Administrator.