Nurse the Hate: Las Vegas Shooting 2

I was driving in to work today and saw an electronic billboard.  Pray for Las Vegas.  Pray for our country.  American flag graphic.  The Republican Congress is already backing away from even the discussion of gun regulations.  “The investigation has not even been completed. I think it's premature to be discussing legislative solutions, if there are any."  The NRA has reverted to their playbook of disappearing during the aftermath.  They will be back in a week or two to defend “freedom”.  Media coverage will flip to the feel-good stories of “heroes” that tried to help other people as they were under automatic weapon fire from a man that blended into society as one of “us”.  If only there was something tangible we could do.  Let us pray to the sky for mercy.  There are no other options.

When I was a kid I remember flying on airplanes in the smoking section.  That sounds absolutely insane now.  I was 11 years old sitting in a narrow plastic tube for four hours while half of the passengers, bored out of their minds, would blaze though packs of smokes.  If a passenger had an aversion to cigarette smoke, they could always sit in the “non-smoking section”.  This could literally mean that this passenger would sit in row 11 while in row 12 three people each smoked a pack of cigarettes.  I remember a flight to Barbados when we had to sit on the runway at JFK for about 90 minutes before moving.  The temperature in the plane steadily rose.  People smoked to kill the time.  Babies started crying.  It was miserable.  I remember when we landed at the destination my eyes were so swollen that I couldn’t see.  My mother had to take my hand to guide me so I wouldn’t tumble down the stairs.  My mother died of lung cancer at age 54.

The cigarette companies had a similar plan as the NRA.  They would keep quiet when tempers ran hot.  They clung to the idea that there was no proof that smoking was harmful even when it was ludicrous to pretend that was the case.  “There is no proof that smoking causes cancer” = ”Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”.  Big Tobacco pushed the idea of personal freedoms being at risk from regulation just like the NRA does.  Of course, cigarettes mainly kill the user while guns are made specifically to kill other people.  Yet, there is nothing we can do to regulate guns.  Pray for the people of Las Vegas.  Pray for our country.

When non-smoking ordinances were being debated, fiery rhetoric came from the smokers.  They predicted businesses closing en masse.  If people couldn’t smoke in bars and restaurants, they would stop going out completely.  Not allowing pubic smoking for the overall good of the population was only the beginning they hissed.  Government would come to take away ALL of your personal freedoms.  Then regulations were passed.  People went outside to smoke.  Everything was fine.  Now it seems crazy that we allowed people to smoke in elevators, buses, airplanes.  Younger people laugh at the absurdity of it.  

It is an inarguable point that our current system with guns is not working.  We either change the system or get used to the idea that at any moment, at any location, someone can open up on you with a military grade weapon.  Why continue to allow the media to cover these tragic events with the sorrowful expressions and staged grief?  Of course, this happened.  It happens all the time.  Why allow Congress to have their “moment of silence to grieve for the victims of Las Vegas” when they are the ones that partially caused the event with their inaction?  They don’t have the right to grieve.  Stop pretending you care.  It’s offensive. 

As we head into Phase 2 of the Vegas Shooting the Public is playing their part.  Outrage is now softly folding back to acceptance of the situation.  Congress will be let off the hook.  Again.  They will vote to keep their personal fiefdoms secure while you can look over your shoulder to see if that harmless looking senior citizen is accumulating dozens of attack rifles and a mountain of ammunition.  Discussion of possible solutions is impossible.  There is only one thing we can do.  Look to the sky.  Pray for Las Vegas.  Pray for our country.