If you listened to Armstrong William’s syndicated radio talk show Monday, you probably were as shocked as we were to hear him provide a ‘partial’ list of mass shootings in America over the last 20 years.
The list went on for several minutes, which gives you an idea of how many “native” terrorists and psychopaths were included in his deadly diatribe. Most of the mass shooting victims numbered a half dozen people per rampage.
Interestingly, none of the three dozen terrorists were Black, although many of their targets were racially motivated, including the Waffle House murders of last Sunday morning.
Two thoughts come to mind when you provide listeners (or readers) with the cold hard and deadly reality of homegrown terrorism in America: first, despite the pronouncements and political rhetoric that usually follow this tsunami of terrorism, their concern ends there, with words and little or no action.
In fact, Congress has even turned a blind eye to the cries of America’s youth, who assembled by the thousands around the country on two occasions this month, demanding gun control and safe schools (the focal point of a half dozen terrorist attacks).
Secondly, in all but a couple of cases, the guns (sometimes semi-automatic weapons) were legally purchased.
That disheartening reality is true because there are few “national” safeguards to protect us, from “them,” (the terrorists).
For example, while some states have strict requirements for obtaining a concealed-carry permit, or to purchase a gun, in many others a mentally disturbed, domestic abuser with a felony conviction can walk into a store, plunk down his money and walk out with a bazooka.
We’re exaggerating…BUT, not by much.
And there are also “strawman sales,” in which guns are purchased by a person on behalf of someone else who doesn’t qualify for a gun because of a prior felony conviction.
Our leaders on the national and local level better wake up, swear-off NRA money, and realize America is a—in military jargon—“target-rich environment.”
They must create and pass legislation that, while not denying law-abiding, felony-free citizens the right to “bear arms,” keeps these “weapons of mass destruction” out of the hands of not only felons, but those who have had multiple run-ins with the law and/or suffer from some form of mental disease.
Congress owes the victims and their families…the nation…nothing less!
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