"Prosecuting all the gun laws that are on the books."

I'm sorry, but I have to go on an anti-gun rant here. The title is a quote from the White House deputy press secretary: the party line. That's just not good enough. This is an issue that makes me hate being a Republican, yes I am a registered GOPer, a liberal Republican (that is not an oxymoron), but let's get back to the point.

Can anyone really argue that this would have happened if the perp did not have access to a gun? You just don't hear about 32 knifings happening in a one-day serial killing. We don't know details yet, but anyone who would do such a thing obviously has a lot of rage and is not endowed with A-1 mental health. What does this say about our society, that we create the circumstances for people to break so catastrophically, and when they do, all they need to do is reach for the nearest semiautomatic 9 mm handgun with a 19-bullet clip that can be reloaded in 2 seconds, clearly a weapon of mass desctruction, or any handy firearm, a handgun, a long gun, it does not matter. Saying as Prez Bushie did, that "Our schools should be a sanctuary of safety and learning." Like duh...and then having the press liaison say nothing is wrong with the current gun laws, the easy access to guns...How do you enforce a law on the books any differently that would have prevented this. 'We should enforce current laws' is just not governing, it's not a party line of a party with no better line, not that Bush II is known for governing by consensus building.

The irony is, state Rep. Angel Cruz (D-Philly 180th) has been circulating a trial balloon on HB 760, which would, again party line 'take away your guns' with a $10 per gun per year registration fee. Okay, for PA with its alleged 2 million sportsman, both registered Ds and Rs, that's a bit extreme, and I was advancing the theory that this was a trial balloon to then say, well how about one gun a month, that doesn't sound so extreme now does it? Well, in this state, in this Dem-controlled political debate where the GOP is trying to latch onto any issue to define themselves as different (generic candidate R loses big time in recent polling to generic candidate D) or anyway more worthy than the ruling Dems (as if the pendulum of a political sea change will swing that quickly back to conservative - we had a revolution in 2006 people, wake up and smell the $5 double shot expresso cappuccino half calf latte).

This is what we hang our hat on: guns - 'I'm pro-gun and they're not.' (not to slight xenophobic anti-immigration conservatives, but that is an issue for another day), but anyway, today, guns. Here I am, antigun as I am (my grandmother was murdered by a firearm!), in the position of having 4 of the 6 members I am supposed to help get out their message...foaming at the mouth in an anti-HB 760 fervor. Web petitions posted, press releases and editorials written (not by the member, but by taxpayer-paid PR professionals) and they are proud to have X number of signatures on their Web sites, advertised either through press releases or talk radio or blast emails with click throughs or whatever.

No wonder I haven't slept right in two weeks...

You're telling me, generic GOPer touting the party line, that if we didn't have all these guns in private hands, that we'd have less of these Columbinian instances, fewer Amish schoolhouse murders, less murder suicides...the craziness is an epidemic in our society.

Which speaks to another issue...what does it say about our society that we are 'creating' citizens that are so stressed out (most of these rage incidents seem to stem from pressures at home, or slights at work) that they break and use legally purchased products to murder their fellow Americans. It's a constitutional right, so sure, why not...carry? Someone was just arguing to me that we're a big society, so these instances will be more frequent, but I just don't see the bloodbath news stories that seem to come in daily, coming from the news stations of our Canadian and British brethren...which seem to control guns better than we do...the per capita murder rate and mass murder rate, without any valid statistics has GOT to be less anywhere - even in the Sudan or Iraq - than here in the good ole U. S. of A. A suicide bomber would be admire this kill ratio, and think of the other Americans killed today in isolated gun-related instances across the country, in Philly, where the murders approach 120 already this year. "The worst civilian massacre in US history," well la di da, more history lessons. History repeats itself, those who are ignore history are condemned to repeat it...Wake up America: WE HAVE TOO MANY GUNS, and many are in the hands of people who are sane today, but will break tomorrw, how do we HELP these people...

Eight years ago this month, Columbine, so we have new security measures, both through homeland security and metal detectors at school doors. So what...we APPEAR to have too many guns falling into too many hands of too many people with too much unresolved, unmedicated and unpsychoanalyzed stress. If ever there was a need for a national health care bill with a mental health parity clause...but again, that is an issue for another day. In the meantime, shoot me if you disagree with me.