Today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the bombing of the World Trade Center. It was on February 26, 1993, that the United States received what would be its first wake-up call with a terrorist attack on American soil.
I was living in Astoria in Queens, one of New York City's five boroughs, at the time. I was home at the time the bombing occurred and noticed that almost all of the television channels were out. The only two channels on the air were a home shopping channel (go figure) and the local Spanish-language Telemundo channel. The Telemundo channel was all news and broadcasting in Spanish and English since all of the other channels, which had antennas atop the Twin Towers, had been knocked out because of the blast. (All of the channels didn't come back on air until around 8:00 p.m., that evening.)
Below is an episode of the short-lived A&E series 'Minute by Minute' from 2001, which recaps the incident from twenty-five years ago today.
Terry
Monday, February 26, 2018
Friday, February 23, 2018
Word of the Day: POSITION
So often in politics, but not exclusive to politics, the question of What is your position? comes up. Whether asked during an interview or stated on a website, what someone's or some group's position is, is important to people.
Let us look at four examples of what some positions are (as I see them):
Below is a letter from the National Rifle Association addressed to judicial candidates in the state of Wisconsin asking for their positions on the Second Amendment.
Let us look at four examples of what some positions are (as I see them):
Below is a letter from the National Rifle Association addressed to judicial candidates in the state of Wisconsin asking for their positions on the Second Amendment.
The highlighted sentence says: "If you choose not to return a position letter, you may be assigned a '?' rating, which can be interpreted by our membership as indifference, if not outright hostility, toward Second Amendment-related issues."
Position: Try to get what you want through intimidation.
Here is another example. Below is a tweet from President Trump from yesterday.
Position: 1) I appreciate the NRA's support, and 2) death-for-profit is patriotic.
Another example. A close-up of Trump's notes for his "listening session" at the White House two days ago revealed something very interesting... (See point 5.)
Position: I need to appear as though I give a damn about the masses.
Finally, a video for an example. This is from a town hall hosted by CNN in Florida that aired live two nights ago, and features a student who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School confronting Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio. (Note Rubio's dodging the question, and how he answers the question without actually answering the question.)
Position: I need the NRA's support to stay in office, so I'm not doing anything against them.
Finally, these four positions are examples of the current and long-standing overall position of too many politicians...
Position: We're not interested in saving lives by ending mass shootings.
Terry
Phrase of the Day: LETTING OUR GUARD DOWN
There were many opportunities to raise red flags and act upon them regarding the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, but it never happened. Those opportunities were not just over the course of days, weeks, or months -- all of which can be ample time -- it was over the course of roughly eight years. It even included law enforcement authorities receiving more than twenty phone calls about the shooter, and going to the shooter's residence nearly forty times since 2010. Even the shooter's first host family -- he was an orphan as of last Fall -- warned law enforcement officials about the shooter.
Some of the students at the high school are praising the FBI, saying they were among the first responders. That is true. However, it is also true that the FBI failed to act in time to stop this from happening. Local law enforcement did not do enough. School staff did not do enough. While all of those entities are doing the right things now, as they should, they all let their guard down.
Sometimes, there is no guard (read as "legal authority") to be held up, as in states and/or municipalities not having laws or statutes in place to deal with these serious situations. In Florida, however, there is something on the books called the Baker Act (or Florida Mental Health Act of 1971). What the Baker Act allows for is a person who is deemed mentally unstable (as the Act defines it) and is deemed a danger to self or others (also as defined in the Act) to be involuntarily committed for evaluation.
The Baker Act is on the books. The Baker Act was not invoked. Our guard was let down. The massacre took place.
The shooter also commented on a YouTube video last Fall, writing, "Im [sic] going to be a professional school shooter." The poster of the video alerted YouTube, which removed the comment, and his local FBI office. The FBI did nothing until after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Then, they contacted the video's poster, telling him they thought the person who posted the comment months earlier might have been the shooter because the name of the person who posted the comment matched the name of the shooter. (The video commenter's YouTube ID was the shooter's name, spelled exactly as it should be, without any creative spelling.)
In response to the YouTube comment and subsequent investigation, FBI Special Agent In Charge Rob Lasky stated, "No additional information was found to positively identify the person who posted this comment. There was no connection found to South Florida." Perhaps, even after all of the problems with, and reports about, the shooter over the better part of a decade, his name was never put into any database to be found.
Relevant law enforcement databases exist. The shooter's name might never have been entered into any of them. Our guard was let down. The massacre took place.
Now, it has been reported that a sheriff's deputy assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School waited outside the school building where the shooter was for four minutes before entering. (The shooting lasted six minutes.) Protocol states that any first-to-arrive law enforcement official must engage an active shooter, whether to distract, to injure, or to kill.
The deputy was required to engage the shooter immediately. He did not. Our guard was let down. The massacre took place.
Two other plots for mass school shootings around the time of the Stoneman Douglas shooting were stopped from coming to fruition. The day before the Valentine's Day carnage in Parkland, a grandmother called 911 and showed the responding officers her grandson's writings about committing a mass murder. He possessed a rifle and grenades (all legally) and wrote how he could hardly wait to get "the biggest fatality number" he could. In Vermont, State Police conducted a two-day investigation into an eighteen-year-old individual that resulted in his arrest one week ago today for wanting to commit a school mass shooting.
In the above two examples, people took notice, raised red flags, local authorities acted, and massacres did not occur. They show that, when everything functions as it should, lives are saved.
However, too many lives are being lost because we far too often are letting our guard down.
Terry
Some of the students at the high school are praising the FBI, saying they were among the first responders. That is true. However, it is also true that the FBI failed to act in time to stop this from happening. Local law enforcement did not do enough. School staff did not do enough. While all of those entities are doing the right things now, as they should, they all let their guard down.
Sometimes, there is no guard (read as "legal authority") to be held up, as in states and/or municipalities not having laws or statutes in place to deal with these serious situations. In Florida, however, there is something on the books called the Baker Act (or Florida Mental Health Act of 1971). What the Baker Act allows for is a person who is deemed mentally unstable (as the Act defines it) and is deemed a danger to self or others (also as defined in the Act) to be involuntarily committed for evaluation.
The Baker Act is on the books. The Baker Act was not invoked. Our guard was let down. The massacre took place.
The shooter also commented on a YouTube video last Fall, writing, "Im [sic] going to be a professional school shooter." The poster of the video alerted YouTube, which removed the comment, and his local FBI office. The FBI did nothing until after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Then, they contacted the video's poster, telling him they thought the person who posted the comment months earlier might have been the shooter because the name of the person who posted the comment matched the name of the shooter. (The video commenter's YouTube ID was the shooter's name, spelled exactly as it should be, without any creative spelling.)
In response to the YouTube comment and subsequent investigation, FBI Special Agent In Charge Rob Lasky stated, "No additional information was found to positively identify the person who posted this comment. There was no connection found to South Florida." Perhaps, even after all of the problems with, and reports about, the shooter over the better part of a decade, his name was never put into any database to be found.
Relevant law enforcement databases exist. The shooter's name might never have been entered into any of them. Our guard was let down. The massacre took place.
Now, it has been reported that a sheriff's deputy assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School waited outside the school building where the shooter was for four minutes before entering. (The shooting lasted six minutes.) Protocol states that any first-to-arrive law enforcement official must engage an active shooter, whether to distract, to injure, or to kill.
The deputy was required to engage the shooter immediately. He did not. Our guard was let down. The massacre took place.
Two other plots for mass school shootings around the time of the Stoneman Douglas shooting were stopped from coming to fruition. The day before the Valentine's Day carnage in Parkland, a grandmother called 911 and showed the responding officers her grandson's writings about committing a mass murder. He possessed a rifle and grenades (all legally) and wrote how he could hardly wait to get "the biggest fatality number" he could. In Vermont, State Police conducted a two-day investigation into an eighteen-year-old individual that resulted in his arrest one week ago today for wanting to commit a school mass shooting.
In the above two examples, people took notice, raised red flags, local authorities acted, and massacres did not occur. They show that, when everything functions as it should, lives are saved.
However, too many lives are being lost because we far too often are letting our guard down.
Terry
Term of the Day: CONSPICUOUSLY SHALLOW
On Tuesday this week, the Florida House of Representatives, with students who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School sitting in the gallery, shamefully voted down taking up the issue of a ban on assault weapons. Even with survivors of a terrifying attack, the likes of which none in the Florida House had to endure as a high school student (or likely ever) themselves, refused to do the right thing, voting 36-71 against.
One day later, that same legislative body had a bill introduced as its first official response to the shooting. Bill HB 839 would require every public school in Florida to display the state's motto of "In God We Trust" in a "conspicuous place". This bill passed the state's House overwhelmingly by a vote of 97-10, followed by a standing ovation in the chamber. (There is also a similar bill in Florida's Senate that has not been taken up yet.)
That's it. That is the Florida legislature's initial response to the murder of seventeen high school students.
While much of the blame can rest on Republicans, although both parties have dropped the ball on gun control, this bill was introduced by a Democrat, Rep. Kim Daniels (pictured above) from Jacksonville. Daniels also runs the online ministries Kimberly Daniels Ministries International and Spoken Word Ministries as well as the online school Word Bible College.
In introducing the bill, Rep. Daniels stated, "[Jesus] is the light and our schools need light in them like never before." She added, "We cannot put God in a closet when the issues we face are bigger than us." If implemented, Daniels said that it would be "so simple, just saying put a poster up to remind our children of the foundation of this country." While acknowledging Florida has "gun issues", Daniels said that addressing "issues of the heart" is more important.
I agree that politicians have been described as having black hearts or being heartless regarding gun control, but her approach in the House is not, in my opinion, the most effective way to go about it.
Let us look at this: Mass murders of school students, from elementary school to college (as well as teachers and other adults in non-school settings), are allowed to go on and on. The people are crying out for change. The politicians, at large, give them none. It is a hot button issue. The separation of church and state is also a hot button issue. (Although I'm sure Rep. Daniels and many of her colleagues will simply say, hey, it's the state motto, but the way she has couched this negates that argument.) Not to mention the piece of church-state separation being the ongoing argument on whether or not the United States is a "Christian nation". So, the answer to one hot button issue is to inject another hot button issue?
Rep. Kimberly Daniels, your desire to legislate the display the state's motto of "In God We Trust" in every public school in Florida in a "conspicuous place" as a response to mass carnage is conspicuously shallow.
Terry
One day later, that same legislative body had a bill introduced as its first official response to the shooting. Bill HB 839 would require every public school in Florida to display the state's motto of "In God We Trust" in a "conspicuous place". This bill passed the state's House overwhelmingly by a vote of 97-10, followed by a standing ovation in the chamber. (There is also a similar bill in Florida's Senate that has not been taken up yet.)
While much of the blame can rest on Republicans, although both parties have dropped the ball on gun control, this bill was introduced by a Democrat, Rep. Kim Daniels (pictured above) from Jacksonville. Daniels also runs the online ministries Kimberly Daniels Ministries International and Spoken Word Ministries as well as the online school Word Bible College.
In introducing the bill, Rep. Daniels stated, "[Jesus] is the light and our schools need light in them like never before." She added, "We cannot put God in a closet when the issues we face are bigger than us." If implemented, Daniels said that it would be "so simple, just saying put a poster up to remind our children of the foundation of this country." While acknowledging Florida has "gun issues", Daniels said that addressing "issues of the heart" is more important.
I agree that politicians have been described as having black hearts or being heartless regarding gun control, but her approach in the House is not, in my opinion, the most effective way to go about it.
Let us look at this: Mass murders of school students, from elementary school to college (as well as teachers and other adults in non-school settings), are allowed to go on and on. The people are crying out for change. The politicians, at large, give them none. It is a hot button issue. The separation of church and state is also a hot button issue. (Although I'm sure Rep. Daniels and many of her colleagues will simply say, hey, it's the state motto, but the way she has couched this negates that argument.) Not to mention the piece of church-state separation being the ongoing argument on whether or not the United States is a "Christian nation". So, the answer to one hot button issue is to inject another hot button issue?
Rep. Kimberly Daniels, your desire to legislate the display the state's motto of "In God We Trust" in every public school in Florida in a "conspicuous place" as a response to mass carnage is conspicuously shallow.
Terry
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Phrase of the Day: MUSINGS OF A MADMAN
The head of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, spoke today at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC for short) in National Harbor, Maryland. I was going to comment here, but his speech speaks for itself of the level of insanity that promotes death for innocent people. This is his speech in its entirety.
Terry
Terry
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Phrase of the Day: FROM FIRST TO THIRD
I want to begin today by mentioning my post from almost a week ago. I had posted a cell phone video from inside a classroom showing scared students and the loud sound of gunfire at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It was the one that had initially been shown most often on television. I finally removed the video box altogether because the video kept getting taken down on YouTube. Videos of the killings of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice stay up on YouTube. Videos from police body cams and patrons' cell phones still remain up from the Pulse night club shooting. The school camera videos of the Columbine High School shooting from 1999 can still be found. Leave the Parkland videos up because America needs to see this carnage for what it is.
The video below is from the Washington Post, so this likely won't get deleted. Here is what it was like inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School exactly one week ago today.
An uprising has occurred this time ... and this time, the students are rising up. These students have had enough and are doing something about it. Watch this video of Stoneman Douglas student Emma Gonzalez at a protest four days ago.
Just two days, another protest took place. This one was in Washington, D.C., right outside the White House. It was called a "lie-in", a silent protest in solidarity with the Florida students.
Today, one week to the day after the mass shooting, busloads of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will be arriving today in Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida, to ask politicians to ban assault weapons.
Yesterday, however, there was a vote in the Florida House of Representatives on whether or not to take up the issue of banning assault weapons. Even with some of the students, who arrived in Tallahassee early, in the gallery, the Florida House voted down a motion to take up a ban on assault weapons by a nearly 2 to 1 margin!
Now, allow me to shift gears for a moment. Think of a war-torn country. Any war-torn country. Think of the images or videos you may have seen on television, on the Internet, or in print. Scary, isn't it? Just imagine living in one of those countries. Hard to do so, isn't it? Imagine being afraid to even leave your home, to even set foot out your front door, for fear of being killed.
Here in America, we have certain neighborhoods scattered about this country where many people do live like that ... maybe I'll go out my front door and come back in, maybe I won't. What groups like the National Rifle Association and various other gun lobbies, gun manufacturers, and many politicians want is to make all of America like a war-torn country. Words like It just shouldn't be that way when all of us are afraid to go out our front doors and offering Our thoughts and prayers and having moments of silence when people don't make it back inside their homes while they do nothing is just fine to them. How can I say it is just fine to them? Because they keep doing it year after year after year after year. If they were not fine with it, they would stop doing it.
You may argue that that sentiment is really harsh. Yes, it is because the reality is harsh. If groups like the NRA simply did not exist and if politicians were not obsessed with getting re-elected so they become those groups' slaves, then, yes, the reality is that harsh.
To the youth of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I say GO FORTH AND FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT!!!! But you will need the resolve of a million armies to stand up to these heartless, evil people! Pro-mass murder people in the media are already smearing these young warriors. They, too, are in full agreement with the triad of terror (NRA/gun lobbies, gun manufacturers, Congress).
To them, your lives, as well as all of our lives, are nothing more than the wretched refuse of turning America from a "first world" country into a third world country just for their benefit.
FIGHT ON!
FIGHT ON!
FIGHT ON!
Terry
The video below is from the Washington Post, so this likely won't get deleted. Here is what it was like inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School exactly one week ago today.
An uprising has occurred this time ... and this time, the students are rising up. These students have had enough and are doing something about it. Watch this video of Stoneman Douglas student Emma Gonzalez at a protest four days ago.
Just two days, another protest took place. This one was in Washington, D.C., right outside the White House. It was called a "lie-in", a silent protest in solidarity with the Florida students.
Today, one week to the day after the mass shooting, busloads of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will be arriving today in Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida, to ask politicians to ban assault weapons.
Yesterday, however, there was a vote in the Florida House of Representatives on whether or not to take up the issue of banning assault weapons. Even with some of the students, who arrived in Tallahassee early, in the gallery, the Florida House voted down a motion to take up a ban on assault weapons by a nearly 2 to 1 margin!
Stoneman Douglas High School students reacting to House vote
©2018 Troy Kinsey / Spectrum News 13
Now, allow me to shift gears for a moment. Think of a war-torn country. Any war-torn country. Think of the images or videos you may have seen on television, on the Internet, or in print. Scary, isn't it? Just imagine living in one of those countries. Hard to do so, isn't it? Imagine being afraid to even leave your home, to even set foot out your front door, for fear of being killed.
Here in America, we have certain neighborhoods scattered about this country where many people do live like that ... maybe I'll go out my front door and come back in, maybe I won't. What groups like the National Rifle Association and various other gun lobbies, gun manufacturers, and many politicians want is to make all of America like a war-torn country. Words like It just shouldn't be that way when all of us are afraid to go out our front doors and offering Our thoughts and prayers and having moments of silence when people don't make it back inside their homes while they do nothing is just fine to them. How can I say it is just fine to them? Because they keep doing it year after year after year after year. If they were not fine with it, they would stop doing it.
You may argue that that sentiment is really harsh. Yes, it is because the reality is harsh. If groups like the NRA simply did not exist and if politicians were not obsessed with getting re-elected so they become those groups' slaves, then, yes, the reality is that harsh.
To the youth of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I say GO FORTH AND FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT!!!! But you will need the resolve of a million armies to stand up to these heartless, evil people! Pro-mass murder people in the media are already smearing these young warriors. They, too, are in full agreement with the triad of terror (NRA/gun lobbies, gun manufacturers, Congress).
To them, your lives, as well as all of our lives, are nothing more than the wretched refuse of turning America from a "first world" country into a third world country just for their benefit.
FIGHT ON!
FIGHT ON!
FIGHT ON!
Terry
Monday, February 19, 2018
Phrase of the Day: PARKLAND SHOOTING IN POLITICAL CARTOONS
As is often the case, cartoonists can capture a sentiment or make a larger point in just a small space. Sometimes, the point they make can have a sarcastic or dark sense of humor about an issue. Sometimes, they intentionally make you feel uncomfortable to make that larger point.
The following are two dozen cartoons in response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last week.
The following are two dozen cartoons in response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last week.
©2018 David Horsey
©2018 Ann Telnaes
©2018 Adam Zyglis
©2018 Scott Stantis
©2018 Mike Luckovich
©2018 Kevin Siers
©2018 Rob Rogers
©2018 Nate Beeler
©2018 Phil Hands
©2018 J.D. Crowe
©2018 Jimmy Margulies
©2018 Jimmy Margulies
©2018 Daryl Cagle / Cagle Cartoons
©2018 Josh Greenman
©2018 Bill Bramhall
©2018 Chan Lowe
©2018 Mike Luckovich
©2018 Walt Handelsman
©2018 Mike Peters
©2018 Pia Guerra / The Nib
©2018 Clay Bennett
©2018 Walk Handelsman
©2018 Bill Lumsford
©2018 Drew Sheneman
Terry
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Phrase of the Day: THE LONE GUNMAN FALLACY
Yesterday, yet another school shooting took place in America. This time, it was at a high school in Parkland, Florida. More than a dozen were injured and, as of this posting, seventeen are dead. The shooter is nineteen years old and an expelled, former student of the high school where the shooting took place. He had hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a gas mask, four smoke bombs, and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Yes, the same kind of rifle used in so many of these mass shootings.
Gun manufacturers sure have a niche market.
Time after time after time, seemingly ad infinitum, the cycle -- and the fact that this cycle even exists is part of the tragedy -- continues. It starts with a tragedy and ends with nothing done.
News reports on this tragedy said that the shooter was a lone gunman. In fact, many of these senseless mass shootings have, as the perpetrator, what the press describes as a lone gunman. Now, before you think I have gone off my rocker, yes, there was one person in Parkland, and Las Vegas, and Aurora, and at Sandy Hill Elementary, and so on, who pulled the trigger(s). Wouldn't that mean it was a lone gunman? Yes and no. One person fired the weapon(s), but there were accomplices. If anyone knows or follows any news story of a tragedy or any wrongdoing, accomplices are always sought after as well ... except when it comes to gun violence in America.
If no one was in the high school in Parkland with the shooter, or in the hotel room in Las Vegas, or in the movie theater in Aurora, or in the halls of Sandy Hill, then who are the accomplices of these shooters? There are three that comprise a triad of terror ...
The NRA, gun manufacturers, and the U.S. government.
The National Rifle Association, which began to promote rifle safety, has become, while ironically still promoting the same, deeply involved in the promotion of sales of firearms to the mass public by means of loosening or removing gun control laws and regulations. Their methods include lobbying and political contributions in the millions of dollars.
Gun manufacturers, who lobby Congress along with the NRA, want to see regulations and laws relaxed and removed because such regulations and laws impede on their profitability. (Although they are quite profitable, nonetheless.) Think of it in terms of sanctions against another country. If you are in business, as are the gun manufacturers, and you are there in make a profit, which is one of the reasons to go into business, why would you want to see your bottom line limited?
The U.S. government is probably the worst of this triad of terror, as they are swayed to do the work of the above two members of the triad and the work of themselves instead of the work of the people. Over and over, gun laws that are in place are altered or relaxed. Gun laws that need to be updated because the weapons and amount of accessibility have changed are never updated. Loopholes at gun shows (which, in many states, operate like an open black market for arming vigilantes), which should have never been in place, are allowed to remain in place.
Gun manufacturers will simple say they are in business and their business happens to be firearms. When suggestions of safety measures, such as smart gun technology, is suggested, they pose a threat to profitability. Add that technology, it adds to the cost of the guns, and then the guns might become less accessible to the masses. That is not what they call in business cost effectiveness. So, the gun manufacturers stand back and say we just want to make our money.
The NRA, as well as other lobbying groups, and members of the U.S. government have their fallback position they obsessively throw into the face of those who disagree with them ... the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Oh, we can't impinge on freedom... People have a right... Do that and it's government overreach... On and on and on and on and on they go. Groups including the NRA tout such ominous, but immeasurably untrue, slogans such as "Freedom's Safest Place", "Fierce Defender of American Liberty", "Frontline Defenders", and "Guardians of the Republic".
They are all contributing to what I called last Fall as "death-for-profit". Add up all of the members of Congress to the number of members and staff of gun right organizations, and add that to the number of those who own and run gun manufacturers. That number is much lower than the remaining total number of men, women, and children in this country. Significantly lower.
Stop and think of all the profits we represent to the gun manufacturers, the NRA, and the Congress.
These murderers have the full support of the triad of terror and, sadly, that support does not appear to be changing any time soon. The next time -- and yes, sadly, there will be a next time -- when the news reporters and pundits mention "lone gunman", keep in mind that they have lots of backers. They have lots of support.
They are never truly alone.
Terry
Gun manufacturers sure have a niche market.
Time after time after time, seemingly ad infinitum, the cycle -- and the fact that this cycle even exists is part of the tragedy -- continues. It starts with a tragedy and ends with nothing done.
News reports on this tragedy said that the shooter was a lone gunman. In fact, many of these senseless mass shootings have, as the perpetrator, what the press describes as a lone gunman. Now, before you think I have gone off my rocker, yes, there was one person in Parkland, and Las Vegas, and Aurora, and at Sandy Hill Elementary, and so on, who pulled the trigger(s). Wouldn't that mean it was a lone gunman? Yes and no. One person fired the weapon(s), but there were accomplices. If anyone knows or follows any news story of a tragedy or any wrongdoing, accomplices are always sought after as well ... except when it comes to gun violence in America.
If no one was in the high school in Parkland with the shooter, or in the hotel room in Las Vegas, or in the movie theater in Aurora, or in the halls of Sandy Hill, then who are the accomplices of these shooters? There are three that comprise a triad of terror ...
The NRA, gun manufacturers, and the U.S. government.
The National Rifle Association, which began to promote rifle safety, has become, while ironically still promoting the same, deeply involved in the promotion of sales of firearms to the mass public by means of loosening or removing gun control laws and regulations. Their methods include lobbying and political contributions in the millions of dollars.
Gun manufacturers, who lobby Congress along with the NRA, want to see regulations and laws relaxed and removed because such regulations and laws impede on their profitability. (Although they are quite profitable, nonetheless.) Think of it in terms of sanctions against another country. If you are in business, as are the gun manufacturers, and you are there in make a profit, which is one of the reasons to go into business, why would you want to see your bottom line limited?
The U.S. government is probably the worst of this triad of terror, as they are swayed to do the work of the above two members of the triad and the work of themselves instead of the work of the people. Over and over, gun laws that are in place are altered or relaxed. Gun laws that need to be updated because the weapons and amount of accessibility have changed are never updated. Loopholes at gun shows (which, in many states, operate like an open black market for arming vigilantes), which should have never been in place, are allowed to remain in place.
Gun manufacturers will simple say they are in business and their business happens to be firearms. When suggestions of safety measures, such as smart gun technology, is suggested, they pose a threat to profitability. Add that technology, it adds to the cost of the guns, and then the guns might become less accessible to the masses. That is not what they call in business cost effectiveness. So, the gun manufacturers stand back and say we just want to make our money.
The NRA, as well as other lobbying groups, and members of the U.S. government have their fallback position they obsessively throw into the face of those who disagree with them ... the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Oh, we can't impinge on freedom... People have a right... Do that and it's government overreach... On and on and on and on and on they go. Groups including the NRA tout such ominous, but immeasurably untrue, slogans such as "Freedom's Safest Place", "Fierce Defender of American Liberty", "Frontline Defenders", and "Guardians of the Republic".
They are all contributing to what I called last Fall as "death-for-profit". Add up all of the members of Congress to the number of members and staff of gun right organizations, and add that to the number of those who own and run gun manufacturers. That number is much lower than the remaining total number of men, women, and children in this country. Significantly lower.
Stop and think of all the profits we represent to the gun manufacturers, the NRA, and the Congress.
These murderers have the full support of the triad of terror and, sadly, that support does not appear to be changing any time soon. The next time -- and yes, sadly, there will be a next time -- when the news reporters and pundits mention "lone gunman", keep in mind that they have lots of backers. They have lots of support.
They are never truly alone.
Terry
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