Tragedy in Wisconsin and Our Out-of-Control Gun Policies
The shooting rampage Sunday at the Wisconsin Sikh Temple outside Milwaukee has got to prompt serious soul-searching about our out-of-control gun policies in this country.
Although President Obama's timely words of condolence strike the right note, once again the President did not seriously address the main problem: that the floridly psychotic, violent racists, and anyone else who attends a gun show or chooses to order thousands of rounds of ammunition online, has easy access to weapons like the two semiautomatic handguns the temple gunman apparently used.
This is not a hunting issue. It is not an issue of self defense. It is a question, as the President himself put it after the horrible massacre in a Colorado movie theater, of whether automatic weapons belong in the hands of soldiers, or of anyone who cares to use them.
It is, as Mitt Romney put it when he signed an assault weapons ban as governor of Massachusetts, a question of whether we allow easy access to weapons that have no other purpose than to hunt and kill people.
Neither President Obama, Mitt Romney, nor the leaders of both political parties in Congress will take up legislative solutions: renewing the federal assault weapons ban, the Brady Bill, or, Senator Lautenberg's common sense proposal to ban the sale of magazines that fire off more than ten rounds at a single trigger squeeze.
That is because both parties are hostages of the NRA ( See 'Time to Stand Up To The Gun Nuts')
But the American people owe nothing to the NRA. People of good will and common sense have to come together to put an end to the insanity and protect our basic right to live in a country where innocent people are not routinely gunned down in movie theaters and places of worship.
Enough is enough.
The idea that nothing can be done, or that the answer is more guns in the hands of more would-be vigilantes, is an obvious lie.
We have to stand up to this evil. How many more of these tragedies can we allow?
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. The final deadline for our crucial Summer Campaign fundraising drive is just days away, and we’re falling short of our must-hit goal. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
The shooting rampage Sunday at the Wisconsin Sikh Temple outside Milwaukee has got to prompt serious soul-searching about our out-of-control gun policies in this country.
Although President Obama's timely words of condolence strike the right note, once again the President did not seriously address the main problem: that the floridly psychotic, violent racists, and anyone else who attends a gun show or chooses to order thousands of rounds of ammunition online, has easy access to weapons like the two semiautomatic handguns the temple gunman apparently used.
This is not a hunting issue. It is not an issue of self defense. It is a question, as the President himself put it after the horrible massacre in a Colorado movie theater, of whether automatic weapons belong in the hands of soldiers, or of anyone who cares to use them.
It is, as Mitt Romney put it when he signed an assault weapons ban as governor of Massachusetts, a question of whether we allow easy access to weapons that have no other purpose than to hunt and kill people.
Neither President Obama, Mitt Romney, nor the leaders of both political parties in Congress will take up legislative solutions: renewing the federal assault weapons ban, the Brady Bill, or, Senator Lautenberg's common sense proposal to ban the sale of magazines that fire off more than ten rounds at a single trigger squeeze.
That is because both parties are hostages of the NRA ( See 'Time to Stand Up To The Gun Nuts')
But the American people owe nothing to the NRA. People of good will and common sense have to come together to put an end to the insanity and protect our basic right to live in a country where innocent people are not routinely gunned down in movie theaters and places of worship.
Enough is enough.
The idea that nothing can be done, or that the answer is more guns in the hands of more would-be vigilantes, is an obvious lie.
We have to stand up to this evil. How many more of these tragedies can we allow?
The shooting rampage Sunday at the Wisconsin Sikh Temple outside Milwaukee has got to prompt serious soul-searching about our out-of-control gun policies in this country.
Although President Obama's timely words of condolence strike the right note, once again the President did not seriously address the main problem: that the floridly psychotic, violent racists, and anyone else who attends a gun show or chooses to order thousands of rounds of ammunition online, has easy access to weapons like the two semiautomatic handguns the temple gunman apparently used.
This is not a hunting issue. It is not an issue of self defense. It is a question, as the President himself put it after the horrible massacre in a Colorado movie theater, of whether automatic weapons belong in the hands of soldiers, or of anyone who cares to use them.
It is, as Mitt Romney put it when he signed an assault weapons ban as governor of Massachusetts, a question of whether we allow easy access to weapons that have no other purpose than to hunt and kill people.
Neither President Obama, Mitt Romney, nor the leaders of both political parties in Congress will take up legislative solutions: renewing the federal assault weapons ban, the Brady Bill, or, Senator Lautenberg's common sense proposal to ban the sale of magazines that fire off more than ten rounds at a single trigger squeeze.
That is because both parties are hostages of the NRA ( See 'Time to Stand Up To The Gun Nuts')
But the American people owe nothing to the NRA. People of good will and common sense have to come together to put an end to the insanity and protect our basic right to live in a country where innocent people are not routinely gunned down in movie theaters and places of worship.
Enough is enough.
The idea that nothing can be done, or that the answer is more guns in the hands of more would-be vigilantes, is an obvious lie.
We have to stand up to this evil. How many more of these tragedies can we allow?