Yes there is a solution to gun violence

What will it take to stop America's gun violence?

An opinion editorial published in The Virginia Pilot and reprinted in The Sun Chronicle, a Massachusetts newspaper.

Virginia Beach, VA- Twelve hard working innocent people were murdered in a mass shooting in Virginia Beach, on May 31, Friday afternoon.

The Virginia Beach community is now going through a process New Englanders know all too well because of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, — remembering the lost, struggling with incomprehensible grief, wondering if life will ever return to normal and asking, over and over, “Why?”

But for too many, this is normal now. (A heinous "new normal")

The Virginia Beach shooting bears some resemblance to other workplace shootings, including the massacre at Hartford Distributors in Manchester, almost nine years ago, when a deranged and disgruntled shooter sought to take out all his frustrations on his coworkers.

The “why” question will echo — nobody will be able to satisfactorily pin down what motivates people to do this. 

But the “what” question can be answered: The shooter had easy access to deadly weapons. And that problem has a solution.

The Virginia Beach shooter is said to have purchased the weapons he used legally. Two .45-caliber handguns, one of which had a “suppressor” that quiets the weapon when fired, and several empty extended magazines were found at the scene.

Saying they were purchased legally doesn’t say much. 

Virginia’s gun laws are among the loosest in the nation, according to the Giffords Law Center, which gives it a grade of “D.” Even after the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, when 32 people were killed, the state didn’t tighten up its gun laws as much as it could have.

Handgun purchasers in Virginia must undergo a background check to insure they are not convicted or indicted felons and that they do not have restraining orders.

There are few other restrictions.

There is no waiting period.

No license is required.

The only restrictions on the purchase of assault weapons are age and citizenship.

Machine guns must be registered with state police.

The looseness of the law might explain the Giffords Law Center finding that “in 2017, Virginia ... supplied crime guns to other states at the 12th highest rate among the states.

Virginia exported crime guns at nearly twice the national rate and nearly three times the rate at which it imported crime guns from other states.”

That underscores the need for legislation on the national level.

It’s plausible that the Virginia Beach shooter would have claimed fewer lives if he didn’t have access to those extended-capacity magazines. But engaging in an argument about hypotheticals is a distraction.

The concrete question is simple: Would stricter gun safety laws erect reasonable barriers to keep military-spec weapons from getting into the hands of madmen without infringing on the Second Amendment rights of responsible gun owners?

Yes. They would. With better federal laws, there would be fewer deaths from firearms.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam made stronger gun laws part of his 2017 campaign, but efforts to pass legislation that would limit gun magazine size and give local governments broader authority to ban guns in city buildings couldn’t get any traction in Virginia’s legislature.

In January, the legislature killed a bill that would have banned sales of large-capacity magazines such as the ones found in the Virginia Beach massacre.

But this is not a state-level problem. This is a national problem.

As of Monday, 167 people have been killed in 156 mass shootings just this year. The number will continue to grow.

It’s time to continue the push for national legislation similar to what Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut already have — a ban on assault weapons and extended magazines, among other smart restrictions.

Given the number of guns already in circulation in the country, it’s unlikely that legislation will end gun violence. But we cannot let it continue unabated.

The nation needs to look in its mirror and acknowledge the facts staring back at us: If we do not enact better gun safety legislation at the federal level, we share the responsibility for what comes next.

San Bernadino - 2nd amendment supporters are anti-life

Second amendment zealots and National Rifle Association (NRA) supporters should be in hiding with shame because their protection of gun ownership rights are anti-life. 

In fact, gun violence in America is more virulent than infectious diseases. Consider gun violence like a deadly germ. Americans have an epedimic of gun violence going on and we must immediately cure it!

As a result, Americans are living in a state of perpetual mourning due to gun violence. Incredibly, yet another mass shooting in San Bernadino, in Southern California, adds to a bizarre litany of murderous circumstances where gun violence has caused the death of innocent people.

San Bernadino California mass casulty gun violence incident at least 14 killed.

Murders of innocent people at Inland Regional Center, a facility that serves people with developmental disabilities is beyond comprehension. It's as horrible an attack as the Sandy Hook murders of innocent school children. (The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members. Prior to driving to the school, Lanza shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived at the scene, Lanza committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.).

Apparently, at least three killers were involved in this domestic terrorism attack . Of course, at this time, we don't know if there was a bizarre conspiracy involved. Although the attack was well planned, there doesn't appear to be a motive for this diabolical assault on a community center, where people with disabilities gathered for a variety of reasons.  

Yet, we know this: if assault weapons like AK47s were illegal, the perpetrators of the San Bernadino mass casuality would have a difficult time executing this horrible crime against innocent people.

San Bernardino, California (CNN)- The hunt for one to three suspects is taking place near a San Bernardino, California, center for people with developmental disabilities, where at least 14 people were killed Wednesday, Police Chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters.

Seventeen other people were hurt in the shooting. SWAT teams and the bomb squad were working to clear the buildings where the shootings took place.

'Pray for us' says a text from California shooting scene

• Authorities have had contact with as many as two suspects from Wednesday's shooting, Sgt. Vicki Cervantes told reporters. At least one suspect was hit in a shootout. It's unclear whether that suspect was killed, she said. A third suspect could still be on the loose, she said. Cervantes also said that a police officer was hurt but the injury is not life-threatening.

All second amendment zealots, including "Cruz to Loose" aka Senator Ted Cruz, along with Donald Trump "the Chump" as well as their anti-life followers, are accomplices to the serial gun violence crimes. Americans are witnesses, in real time. to serial murders occuring with sickening regularity.

It seems clear, the people who believe Second Amendment gun rights are sacred are, frankly, anti-life, because all gun violence is preventable.  

The Los Angeles Times is reporting:

San Bernardino shooting live updates: 14 killed; at least 1 suspect 'down' after police shootout
What we know
Around 11 a.m., at least one shooter opened fire in San Bernardino at the Inland Regional Center, a facility that serves people with developmental disabilities.

Preliminary numbers: At least 14 people were killed and 17 wounded, San Bernardino police said.
Police said there were one to three assailants, who were heavily armed and possibly wearing body armor.
After a car chase, one suspect has been shot by police, and authorities said one might be at large. The status of another person seen in a vehicle at the end of the chase is unclear.

Investigators are not sure whether the shooting was an act of terrorism, an FBI official said.

Police seek the public's help finding the attackers. Tipsters can call ( 866) 346-7632 ; to stay anonymous, call (800) 78CRIME.

Second Amendment Zealots in Denial About Guns in Their Senseless Mantra: "People Kill People" - but Ammunition Can be Controlled

Rachel Maddow brings focus to my blog arguments about controlling ammunition and high volume assault weapons clips to prevent mass gun violence murders, TRMS on April 4, 2013.  

Obviously, there's no infringement on the Second Amendment, the right for Americans to own arsenals of deadly firearms, if more controls were to be enforced over the sale of ammunition.  

Americans tax and regulate drugs, alcohol and tobacco, so ammunition can easily be subject to oversight. 

Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, whose district includes Newtown, Connecticut, (Sandy Hook Elementary innocents shootings) talked with Rachel Maddow about the newly passed gun reform laws in Connecticut after Maddow exposed the nonsensical natures of National Rifle Association (NRA) arguments for high capacity ammunition magazines.  For some reason, the NRA seems to believe the ammunition used to kill people with assault weapons are irrelevant to gun control.  But, if Americans controlled ammunition sales, the gun obsessed Second Amendment zealots could own all the guns they desire without affecting our Constitutional right to bear arms.

Without ammunition, Adam Lanza, 20, couldn't possibly have committed the mass murder of innocents, on December 14, 2012, when he  fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the village of Sandy Hook in Newtown Connecticut.  Before driving to the school, Lanza had shot and killed his mother Nancy at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived, Lanza committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. The shootings prompted renewed debate about gun control in the United States, and a proposal for new legislation banning the sale and manufacture of certain types of semi-automatic firearms used to kill people and ammunition clips with more than ten rounds of ammunition.

Esty said Lanza would have killed fewer people if his ammunition clip required reloading after 10 rounds were fired.  She said 11 students escaped his deadly rampage while he changed clips after his first one emptied.  It's a tragic commentary on the news of this deadly event to reflect on how many fewer deaths would have occurred if Lanza had taken a smaller ammunition clip with him on December 14th, last year.  Instead, we should talk about how every death at Sandy Hook could have been prevented by prohibiting the sale of any assault weapons, along with the ammunition used to senselessly kill so many people.  

Nevertheless, even in the face of facts about how guns kill people, the NRA continues to deny the cause and effect.  Instead, the NRA is complicit in the preventable deaths of innocent people while spewing lies about "people who kill", rather than blame the weapons and the ammunition.  Regardless of how mentally ill or angry a person might be, and in spite of how motivated a deranged person can become to mass murder innocent people, the fact is, gun violence deaths would not happen if firearms were absent and ammunition wasn't available to the killers.

Unfortunately, the Second Amendment arguments are too daunting to solve.  But ammunition can be controlled.  Like alcohol, tobacco and controlled substances, we can make a difference by limiting access to the preventable cause of death of so many people.  We can control, tax and restrict the sale of ammunition.