Well…just as I predicted, many commentators are using the Arizona tragedy to try to further their political goals…and the attacks by the left on Sarah Palin, particularly by Keith Olbermann have me dismayed…but, I guess he’s not one of the reasonables that I talk about. Let’s get this straight at the top….the shooter was just frickin crazy; no political component to it, no connection to the abhorrent, hate filled speech from the right or to SP’s crosshair imagery…just another nut that heard the voices in his head and acted on it. So, what do we take away from this? is there anything to take away from this? There have been calls for tighter gun laws that may have prevented this nut from getting guns but we all know that it’s not true. Even if all guns were outlawed, rounded up and destroyed, it would take an enterprising criminal about 10 seconds to figure out how to make a profit and supply the underground demand that would result. What would have stopped this nut from just ramming his car into the crowd?

I didn’t really think about it until now but I guess this is somewhat of a defense of gun owners, most of whom are responsible and their legal guns never used for any purpose than what they are supposed to be used for. I grew up around them and many friends still own them…not once have they used them for illegal purposes. That said, there is a problem with them here in the US….just saw a statistic that between 1979 and 1997, more people were killed by guns in the US than in all of the wars we’ve fought since 1775…it makes the 3,000 plus killed on 9/11 kind of pale by comparison. I don’t have the solution..but I do know that it is wrong to exploit this tragedy for political purposes…shame on everyone that does…geez…