There is no reason why any civilian actually NEEDS an AR-15. Unless you count killing a lot of people at once as a "need."
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) June 12, 2016
[Early Sunday morning] 50 people were shot and killed at an Orlando nightclub, and more than 50 were injured. We don’t know all the details. But we do know that this is the deadliest shooting in American history — and that these horrifying attacks happen far too often. 50 families woke up without a loved one this morning. The more than 50 people who were injured will begin a long and painful road to recovery. For all those affected by this horrific attack, their lives will never be the same again.
- Shannon Watts, Founder, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America
America awoke yesterday to the news of the worst mass shooting in American history. 50 people are dead (including the shooter) and 53 wounded in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando. Once again, I find myself asking the same question I ask after each and every mass shooting: Why? Why does this sort of thing happen, and why are there those out there who see nothing wrong with the sale and ownership of assault weapons being legal? Why??
Once again, I’m hearing the “Guns aren’t the problem; people kill people” argument. Someone on my Instagram feed wrote, “My kitchen knives could kill somebody too, so could my shovel.” Right; would your kitchen knives or shovel kill 50 people in a gay nightclub? Someone else wrote, “This has nothing to do with gun control!!! It’s an ISIS issue!!!” It’s difficult to know where to begin with such world-class ignorance and bullshit. It seems some cling so tightly to their precious firearms that they’ve lost any semblance of humanity.
I’m not going to pretend to be objective. I’m not. I’m sick and tired of hearing (yet again) of a mass shooting that might not have been possible if assault weapons were still illegal. The gunman in Orlando used an AR-15, a weapon that has one purpose: the taking of human life. There’s no sporting purpose to be served by owning an AR-15. It’s not a target-shooting weapon; it’s designed to destroy human life.
I’m angry that mass shootings have become part of the background noise of American life- accepted as just what happens when bad guys with guns exact their carnage upon innocent civilians. I’m incensed that Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © and the gun lobby, led by groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA), refuse to countenance ANY sort of common-sense gun control. These are people who care far more about their precious 2nd Amendment rights than human life, even though no one advocating for common-sense gun control is advocating to roll back anyone’s gun rights.
There’s no inalienable right to own an assault weapon. There’s no such thing as an immutable right to own a weapon designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. How much longer must we listen to the self-interested monsters who insist their 2nd Amendment rights are more precious than human life? How many more innocents will die that common-sense gun control might have saved? How many more Americans will be forced to bury loved ones killed in mass shootings when re-instituting the assault weapons ban may have saved at least some of those lives? Why are monsters allowed to hold sway over our relationship with guns?
And how is it that no one on the federal government’s terror watch list can board an airplane…but ANYONE on the list can legally buy an assault rifle? I know; it’s a question that doesn’t bear directly on this massacre, but it needs to be asked…and answered. Omar Mateen may or may not have been on the watch list, but he was interviewed twice by the FBI in recent years…which raises a very good question. Why was Mateen allowed to purchase his AR-15? It seems that though Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © hate terrorists, they have no problem with them purchasing assault weapons. Then they proclaim shock and horror when they’re used for their intended purpose.
Hey, guns don’t kill people, remember??
