Twenty children dead. We are all horrified. Another mass murder by another deranged shooter. Now we're going to start the debate again. Should guns be banned? Should the second amendment be repealed? My liberal colleagues are going to call for the implementation of gun laws that are so draconian as to make conservatives want to unlock their gun cabinets and take up defensive positions. Conservatives, on the other hand, are going to argue that guns don't kill people, people kill people. This ludicrous argument while the families in Newton, Connecticut are purchasing caskets for children who never had a chance to live their lives.

But we're asking the wrong questions. We're fighting the wrong battles. We're blaming the wrong people. I'm sitting here at my computer shedding tears for the 27 people who died in this horrific tragedy but I'm also shedding tears for the other 18,000 Americans, adults and children who have died this year in a way that used guns and bullets. I'm not blaming the average gun owner. Most of you are responsible, well trained, law abiding Americans, who are as upset as the non-gun owner at this madness. No..... I'm directing my anger and yes, my rage at the National Rifle Association and their spokespersons like Wayne LaPierre who have intimidated this country into accepting the need for 300 million guns in a nation of 340 million people. These are the people who have convinced Americans that the gun laws that we have are fine. We just don't enforce them well enough.

We live in a country that has made murder a national pastime. We have made criminals like Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, the Mafia, and previous mass murderers into folk heroes. We see ourselves as exceptional, but fail to understand that large population countries like Great Britain who have strict gun laws have an average of 80 gun related deaths a year. We pass that number in two days. 

We are a nation that has always respected gun ownership. We have also been a nation that has known how to limit that ownership when in the best interests of the people. Even in the "wild, wild, west" there were towns that were gun free. When people came into the town, they checked their weapons with the sheriff. Even in towns that didn't have those laws there were buildings that were gun free zones. Whether they were schools, or churches, or even the local bar. Compare that to the lame duck legislature in Michigan who, just yesterday passed a concealed weapons law that will allow people to legally carry concealed firearms into schools, churches, etc.

The graves of 18,000 dead and their families are still seeking reasons for these deaths. We know that most of them were senseless. Many were committed with illegal weapons. We must get them off the streets and we must prosecute those that possess them. Even more important, however, is the prosecution of those that sell these unregistered weapons, whether they are legal dealers or not, whether the sale is off the street, at a gun show, or under the counter at a store. We must have detailed background checks on every gun purchaser, both criminal and mental health. There must be severe penalties for those participating in straw purchases. 

This country has to stop being brainwashed that it is sportsmen who really want semi-automatic, rapid fire, and large clip weapons. I've heard the bull and know that they are not hunting weapons, they are killing weapons. They are not self-defense weapons, they are aggressive weapons. They are the types of weapons that kill movie goers in Aurora or college students at Virginia Tech or school children and teachers in Newton. Our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, and friends and fellow citizens are not prey to be hunted down by insane mass murderers.  Yes they are insane, but these kids would be alive today if this guy brought a baseball bat or a knife into the school, same thing in Virginia Tech, same thing in Aurora.. The insane killed, but they killed with guns. Limit their access to guns, they cannot commit mass murder.

There is an inalienable right for sane, law abiding Americans to own firearms. The question in the next few months will be what firearms. I've heard the complaints of the NRA about taking away the rights of Americans too damn often. I want LaPierre and his cronies to go to Newton, Connecticut and talk to every one of the people who are mourning a loss that should never have happened. Tell them about the rights that their children will never know. Tell those parents that his right to own a Glock superceded their child's right to live a life. But what he'll do is what every coward will do. He'll get up on a podium and take the position that the government is going to take away his and your rights. As usual he will be lying. As usual, because of his lies, too many people lie dead, and most sane Americans will keep on shedding tears for those needlessly gone.