WHAT SHOULD PRESIDENT OBAMA DO ABOUT GUN VIOLENCE?

President Obama

Barack Obama is the President of the United States, after all. He should be able to put a stop to American gun violence that is one of a kind in developed countries. The Brits wouldn't allow this kind of bloodshed to continue over a period of time like it has in the U.S. Neither would Canada or Australia where gun control is the law. Columbine was in April of 1999; that's fifteen years. And through all this it has been the National Rifle Assn., led by wacky Wayne LaPierre, that keeps blaming it on everything but the real cause. GUNS. And it is a sniveling U.S. Congress, scared to death of the NRA, that refuses to pass the gun laws necessary to quell this violence. All of this perpetrated on the American people so gun manufacturers can sell more guns to more gun nuts. Obama has spoken out again. Will he follow up?

JOHN MCCAIN's TIME HAS PASSED

John McCain

He served the state of Arizona in the U.S. Senate well after being elected based on his Vietnam incarceration. Yes, there was a sympathy vote there which has arisen in many political articles over the years. Regardless, John McCain did good things for Arizona and the country. I had a great deal of respect for him as a GOP moderate and maverick who stood up for what was right, regardless of the party connection. But this is all history now. First there was his run for President against Barack Obama that was noteworthy...until he named Sarah Palin as his Vice President. Sheer stupidity based on choosing someone like Palin and dumber because it made the Republican Party look like a bunch of idiots. And then there were all the flip-flops first on immigration, on climate change, then on Bowe Bergdahl's prisoner exchange. All done for the sake of getting reelected. It's time to move on from John and hopefully in his next reelection we can send Jeff Flake packing.

NEIGHBORS KNEW OF LAS VEGAS COUPLE'S KILLING PLANS

Walmart Las Vegas shooting

What is it the American public can't understand about "I just might go out and do a mass killing?" The dialogue was similar in what the killers Jared and Amanda Miller told their neighbor,
Krisa Koch, before the killings. Their actual words were "the couple had told her they were going to carry out an attack." Koch said, " she thought they were 'crazy,' so she dismissed what they said." And then the woman the pair of murderers was staying with, Kelley Fielder, "She said she saw the pair leave the home early Sunday carrying weapons and ammunition." Good God, what does it take when there are killings like this daily in the newspapers and on television and the radio. Are these people just stupid or is this an extension of the American public's dismissive nature of the shootings taking place throughout the U.S? Either way it's pathetic.

ERIC CANTOR LOSES HOUSE SEAT IN VIRGINIA PRIMARY

Progressives can gloat over the House Majority leader's loss in today's Virginia primary but that's

Eric Cantor

only if that translates into a negative reaction to Tea Party candidates as it did in 2012. Eric Cantor trails his Tea Party backed opponent, David Brat 55% to 44%. Apparently no one saw it coming and hopefully this might be a precursor to the Democrats taking back the House in November. TPers have an inherent ability to really piss off sane voters and one can only dream of a replay of some of the 2012 races. But if Cantor is considered the most conservative in the House, God help us if Brat does win. Everyone says this seat is solidly GOP but time will tell.

LAS VEGAS SHOOTING CONCEALED CARRY CIVILIAN SHOULDN'T HAVE DIED

I've said it before and now it's happened again; a vigilante type carrying a gun in public has died as a

Cici's Pizza Las Vegas shooting

result this time. He shouldn't have but it is this kind of cowboy mentality promoted by the National Rifle Assn. that leads these folks to think they are ready to defend the American public. They aren't. It takes months of training for a police officer to know what to expect in crucial situations like this but I doubt if the armed guy, Joseph Wilcox, had anywhere near that. He didn't anticipate an accomplice and she shot and killed him. In the Gabby Giffords Tucson shooting in 2011, two Arizona gun gauchos tried to come to Giffords' aid and nearly shot each other. In Arizona the only thing necessary to carry a gun around on the streets is to have a pulse. I am firmly against open and concealed carry permits and hope that the Supreme Court will soon make this a thing of the past.

WHERE IS OBAMA? WHERE IS CONGRESS? AS THE CHILDREN KEEP DYING

Reynolds HS evacuation

My wife said this morning with the news that there was another shooing in Oregon with two dead, one a student at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon, just outside Portland, "It's beginning to look like a conspiracy." But who are the conspirators? Maybe the National Rifle Assn. is involved since we have had so many shooting incidents with absolutely no action from lawmakers. On the other hand each mass shooting fires up the gun nuts that much more to protect their right to own a gun. Which means gun manufacturers sell more guns and then shower the NRA with more cash donations to keep its head, wacky Wayne LaPierre happy. I'd hate to think I am right about this and I'm probably not. But this is coming to a crisis level, if it hasn't already, and if something isn't done for reasonable gun control soon, the National Guard will have to escort your kids to school, sit with them all day, and then escort them home.

NRA WANTS TO ARM MENTALLY ILL

I touched on this in an earlier post, “NRA wants to weakenVirginia Gun Violence Prevention Law.” but the mentally ill factor deserves more coverage. Although the Newtown shooting was horrendous due to the number of young children shot and killed, the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, was the worst ever. Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and injured 17 others. He was mentally ill. MSNBC provides some background: the Gun Control Act of 1968, prompted by the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, said once you were banned you stayed banned. After Virginia Tech, Congress passed the NICS Improvements Amendment Act, requiring states to submit mental health records to the national database.

After consideration, the NRA said this is no good for their membership. But you could pass it, if first the words "mentally defective" in the amendment were more narrowly defined, which I am guessing would keep it from identifying many of their members. Second there had to be an easier way for those deemed mentally unbalanced to get their guns back. Meaning some backwoods justice of the peace could say, "Halleluiah, they have been cured." A doctor's order would even be sufficient to get back his or her arsenal. The Gun Control Act of 1968 blown to smithereens. Does anyone else get just how stupid this all sounds?

And doesn't this remind you of the fact that Iowa wants to arm the blind.