Hartford Courant (Conn.), Oct. 3:
This is utterly insane. Due to the rank cowardice of Congress, the price of living in this country has become more than 30,000 gun deaths – dozens each day – and many injuries each year.
In 2015, there have been 294 mass shootings in which at least four people were killed or injured. There haven’t been that many days in 2015.
School has only been in session for a month and already there have been 45 school shootings. In a supposedly civilized country, young people ought to be able to go to school without fear of death. But apparently that is asking too much.
The latest in a long string of recurring tragedies took place Thursday when a gunman killed nine people and wounded seven before being killed by police at a community college in Oregon. The alleged shooter was 26-year old Chris Harper-Mercer. Preliminary descriptions say he was something of a loner with an interest in mass shootings.
He shouldn’t have had access to a gun, but thanks to the all-guns-allthe time culture that the gun lobby has foisted on a gutless Congress, he can get all the guns he wants.
As a very frustrated President Obama said, these mass killings have become routine, and how is that possible? Why does the U.S. have so many more mass shootings and gun deaths than other countries? We can make driving and other activities safer via research, but Congress, at the behest of the gun lobby, has even blocked research into gun safety. After the horrific Newtown massacre of 2012, the Senate couldn’t even muster the votes to pass a common-sense universal background check bill that had the backing of 90 percent of Americans.
A Quinnipiac poll just last week indicates 93 percent of Americans support universal background checks. But if Congress couldn’t pass this law after 20 small children and six female educators were gunned down in Newtown, the prospect of new legislation is dim.
But there is naught but to keep the pressure on. Write to members of Congress who oppose sensible gun safety legislation. Mention that states such as Connecticut that have good gun safety laws have fewer shootings. When mass killings become so routine that we stop noticing, we are in real trouble.
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