Guns

  I assume everyone receiving this e mail agrees with my views on guns.  I have heard endless analyses of the issue in the last 24 hours.  I would like to share my thoughts of the most interesting comments, good and bad.

       First, the lunatic in chief.  His first tweet put the blame on the teachers and students for not preventing the gunman from doing the killing.  This man is crazy, not to mention evil.  Today he gave a seven minute speech  with the same old platitudes about prayer and telling children how much we love them.  He said we will do everything we can to protect them.  That is, of course, a bald faced lie.  

        Rubio, Ryan,  Cruz and others say now is not the time to talk about gun control.  It never is.  Grassley said the one thing all of the mass killers have in common is that they had mental problems.  He is wrong.  There is a second thing they all had in common.  They all used assault weapons.  After every mass murder Ryan has said exactly the same ting, now is not the time to talk about gun control.

      Tim Kaine made  a great argument.  He said that the NRA has its headquarters in his state.  He gets an "F" grade from the NRA.  He nevertheless gets reelected.  He called the NRA a fraudulent  paper tiger.  They should not be feared.  Yet his colleagues fear that the NRA will go after them if they buck the NRA.  Kaine urges his colleagues to forget their fears.  The NRA is really toothless.  If only there were a stiff spine on Capitol Hill.

        Wolfe Blitzer interviewed  a psychiatrist  who is an expert in mass violence.  She put into words exactly what I had been thinking.  She said it is a pure fantasy to think that increased mental treatment will prevent these things from happening.  She said that mass killings occur as a result of a sudden explosion of a psychotic episode.  She said that one cannot predict which mentally impaired person will explode and which will not.  She said the only thing that  can be effective is controlling the availability of assault weapons.  She said that states with effective gun control laws have lowered their numbers of gun related crimes.  The psychiatrist said that she herself has held an assault weapon.  She said it gives a person a tremendous sense of power and entitlement.    Just putting such a weapon in  anyone's hands is highly dangerous.

         Chump's speech was interesting in a couple of ways.  First, he was reading from a teleprompter.  He can barely read.  I suspect  a fifth grade teacher would say that he is barely at grade level.  He spoke with almost no inflection.  He gave the usual platitudes.  Second, his speech never once said the word "gun".    The good news for Chump is that the massacre occurred near Mar A Lago.  I guarantee that when he goes to Florida to meet the families of the victims it will not stop him from getting in his rounds of golf.  Watch and see.    Thanks again for listening.

                                                       Richard