2012/12/27

William Rivers Pitt: All I want for Christmas. Guns Peace & Justice!

I want Wayne La Pierre to sit in a room with the families of the victims of the Newtown massacre, and explain to them his grand theories on further arming our hyper armed society. I will not get that wish, however, because Wayne LaPierre is a cowardly blowhard who gives "press conferences" where no questions are allowed. I want those children to be alive on Christmas morning. I want those teachers to be alive. I want Adam Lanza to be alive. I want his mother to be alive. I want those teachers to be alive. I want her guns to be un-bought, sitting in a gun store display case gathering dust, forever unloaded. Early on Christmas Eve morning, a man outside of Rochester set fire to a house and waited with his firearm for firefighters to arrive. When they did, the man shot four of them, killing two and wounding two severely, before killing himself. Because of the gunshots, the fire could not be dealt with, and several neighboring houses also burned. I want those two dead firefighters to be unharmed, I want the shooter alive, those houses unburnt, and I want someone to explain to me how a man who would set a trap for firefighters by burning down his own house got his hands on a gun, and why that is the definition of American freedom. I want Wayne LaPierre to be in a roomful of firemen when he announces the solution to problems like this is to arm firefighters. I want to watch what happens next. I want a broad national conversation on sane and sensible gun control, but I won't get that, either, because "gun control" is the Israel Palestine of American policy discussions, the opinions are so entrenched, and the arguments have been repeated so many times that nobody actually talks to each other about it anymore, but merely belch well worn cliche responses like some demented exercise in cut and paste conversation, while the bodies pile up, and up, and up. If I get my wish about having a real conversation on the issue, I want the idea of establishing a 28th Amendment to the Constitution, one that clarifies the 2nd Amendment, and for all time nails down what gun rights are in America, to be part of the debate,   

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