Rant #420: Back to Reality

After devoting Friday's rant to that bum who is sitting on top of the world, I think the world was brought back to reality with that gun rampage on Saturday.

The venom was directed at Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, but the gunshots also hit several other people, including a nine-year old girl who was the granddaughter of former Phillies, Yankees and Mets manager Dallas Green.

A suspect is in custody, and this individual, by all accounts, is a deranged person who faces one count of attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the federal government and two accounts of attempting to kill a federal employee.

He has not yet been charged with the murders he allegedly committed, but those charges are coming.

What would possess an individual to commit such an act? The man is obviously not of right mind, but since he did not turn the gun on himself, the police have had a chance to question him. But with a person in this mental state, I guess they probably won't get much out of him.

What they do know is that the alleged gunman was a loner, who kind of fell off the deep end. He read numerous books in his poisoned state, including Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kampf."

A lot of the news reports questioned the recent severity of politics in Washington that was seemingly fueling the alleged gunman's venom. One, in particular, was that Sarah Palin made it known that Giffords was on her "list" because of various policies that Palin claimed Giffords backed.

Believe me, I am not defending Palin, who I find to be one of the scourges of the country right now. However, I think the media is missing a much larger message here.

How was this guy able to purchase, and supposedly legally purchase, a high-capacity semi-automatic weapon, or for that matter, any firearm, so easily?

It seems that in some states, it is as easy as buying a bottle of milk.

The gun lobby would claim that Americans have the right to bear arms, but guns should not be as available as candy is. If a proper background check was made on this guy, he would never have been able to get a gun, and get one so easily.

If nothing else, the check would have found that he was charged with misdemeanor drug possession some time ago--and to me, that's enough to say that this guy should never be able to get a gun--and I mean never, I don't care how long he has been sober (and all accounts are that he was a regular pot smoker even after the misdemeanor charge).

National laws must be drawn up to prevent people like this from ever legally owning a firearm.

Sure, if they really want one, they can get one on the street, but let them go to the trouble of buying a gun that way--perhaps, the road to doing this will be so filled with potholes that a person like this will either be discouraged or he will be caught by the authorities.

I just don't understand people owning guns, feeling the need to arm themselves as if they are involved in their own private war.

I knew a person just like this idiot. He was in a deranged mental state, bought a gun before New York gun laws were stiffened, went into a local hotel and blew his brains out.

That was 30 years ago, and I see things haven't changed much.

Well, if nothing else, this latest episode demands that gun laws in all 50 states be stiffened, and perhaps a national gun law should be established.

How many murders will it take to get this point across?