Have you ever seen the movie ‘Falling Down’ with Michael Douglas?  It’s about a guy who experiences a series of unfortunate events until, one day, just sitting in a traffic jam, the guy…breaks.  Our society has a way of doing that to people.  I think this most recent shooter (August 31, 2019) in Texas (7 dead, 22 injured) is one of those.  We’ll all find out together, over time, but that’s my guess.

It’s not about the guns, really.  It’s a question of mental health.  (I actually believe this to be true.)  But here’s a harsh reality: we, the people, have decided to allow our civilization to descend into hell rather than ask the people who have extracted so much from our society to participate in it.  This means there’s not enough money to fund proper mental health facilities any more.  If we’re not going to do anything to help the most damaged people in our society (and we’re not), we have little choice but to try to limit the amount of damage they can do when they break.  Sure, it’s treating the symptom, not the disease but sometimes, that’s the only option one has.

To my mind, that means semi-automatic weapons have to go.

Yeah, I know the responses I’ll get from my gun rights advocates (GRAs).  I agree with many – perhaps most – of them.  I know most gun owners do NOT mishandle their weapons.  I know that crazy people can and will use other implements of destruction to carry our their murderous rampages.  But my GRAs know the power of semi-automatic weapons is hard to match.  There’s a reason military members aren’t equipped with kitchen knives or hammers.

This most recent shooter drove down the street shooting people at random from his moving car, then a stolen mail truck.  One hand on the steering wheel, the other on the trigger of a semi-automatic weapon.  The beauty of a semi-automatic weapon is the number of rounds one can fire in a short time – and with ONE HAND!  Everything else is slower.  Many require two hands to set up the next shot.  That, alone, would have prevented deaths.

I know, the 2nd Amendment.  The founders said in the Declaration of Independence that men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.  Among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  I find the 2nd Amendment to be superseded by the unalienable right to live one’s life.  If I have to choose, I choose the living over the guns and, apparently, I have to choose.

My GRAs will say it’s not about the guns, it’s about mental health.  I agree – 100%.  But since we’re NOT going to do anything to help those in need, we have little choice but to take action to protect those in the cross-hairs…

I’d be interested in hearing realistic alternatives.  (Emphasis on “realistic…”)

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So, hurricane Dorian is destroying the Bahamas even as I write and is bearing down on Florida.

The largest hurricane ever recorded?  This after July, 2019 was dubbed by the NOAA as the hottest month ever recorded?  It’s almost as if it doesn’t matter how often the climate change deniers deny reality.  Reality just keeps on coming, inexorably.

I offered a deal to the Christian God that I would be a lifelong believer if the hurricane passed and didn’t hurt anybody but wiped Mar-a-Lago off the map.  I’m already off that hook as the first death was reported.  It was only AFTER I offered that I realized Trump would just lie about the property’s value and make money from the insurance…

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I saw a meme that said that Capitalism had defeated Communism and was about to defeat Democracy.  Sadly, all too true but I think Capitalism is actually about to defeat humanity in general.  Maximum value for the shareholders right up until they die?  Maybe the Capitalists aren’t as clever as they think…