Sharp Difference Between UK and US

We all fear the mega terrorist attack.  We cannot forget 9/11, or the Paris massacre.  Fortunately, the greater the need for coordination and movement of people and material, the greater the chance of detection.

The home grown, self-radicalized terrorist is the dangerous needle in a haystack.  His only resources are his unbalanced mind, his focused hatred, and the weapons he can buy or assemble.   In today's attack in England, the weapons were a car and a knife.  Do we have any doubt, that in America, an assault rifle would have multiplied the carnage?

European gun control laws partially defang lone wolves.

Crazy GOP

In response to the mass murder of children at Sandy Hook and the loss of life in Orlando, Republicans desperately hunted for a rationale to ward off gun control legislation.  They hit upon mental illness.  Even progressives, while denying that Republicans had scored a bulls eye, had to acknowledge they hit the target.

But, Republicans seldom shoot straight. Even rank amateurs can draw a bead from GOP health care think tank proposals, through the platform of presidential candidate Bob Dole and the plan implemented by Romney in Massachusetts, directly to Obamacare.  Their proposal, when adopted by a Democratic president, was a weapon of mass destruction, threatening the economy and our way of life.

So it can come as no surprise that Republicans have voted that mental illness has no bearing on the right to bear arms.

The Gun Lobby: Principled Paranoia

Gun ownership is enshrined in the Second Amendment.  For women, the right to bear arms predates the right to bare arms.

Americans resoundingly, if not universally, agree that hunters should be able to purchase rifles, and that all, who believe the risk of criminal assault exceeds the danger of accidental discharge, may buy a pistol for self protection.

Gun control legislation consistent with this consensus, would ban automatic and semi-automatic weapons, as well as custom magazines that may chamber as many as 90 rounds.  James Holmes would not be able to purchase enough rounds online, to slaughter the entire deer population of North America.  An efficient and interconnected federal, state and local data base would track such purchases, as well as, multiple gun purchases.  Better background checks would be possible through shared information.

But legislation is prevented by a fringe phalanx that is locked and loaded by the NRA.  America is a long standing democracy with an intricate system of checks and balances.   But some believe that the federal government is, or about to become, a gestapo trampling on their rights.  They reason that only a well armed citizen militia can protect freedom and liberty.   Gun control is held hostage, by this well financed minority.

If the inmates are allowed to run the asylum, we should at least ensure that they do not have assault rifles.