IT IS PAST TIME TO TAKE ON THE NRA

December 14, 2012

Newtown, Connecticut (CNN) — In one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, a gunman opened fire Friday in a Connecticut elementary school, killing 26 people — 20 of them children, police said.

Here we go again. Another mass murder involving legal guns, this time taking the lives of 20 children between ages five and ten, their principal, and five teachers.

What unspeakable horror and madness! And this in a supposedly civilized nation!

For decades now, the National Rifle Association has outright owned enough federal and state legislators to prevent the adoption of any sensible forms of legislation that would curtail the madness that is the trafficking in and use of guns that have only one purpose—killing other people.

As a result, our nation is the laughing stock of the majority of civilized nations in the world that have strict gun control laws and, therefore, do not even come close to the number of crimes and mass murders that occur in the U.S. annually involving both legal and illegal guns.

In case you have forgotten, here is a litany of the mass murders in the U.S. since the Columbine, Colorado in 1999:

• In April 1999, two teenage schoolboys shot and killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves.
• In July 1999, a stock exchange trader in Atlanta, Georgia, killed 12 people including his wife and two children before taking his own life.
• In September 1999, a gunman opened fire at a prayer service in Fort Worth, Texas, killing six people before committing suicide.
• In October 2002, a series of sniper-style shootings occurred in Washington DC, leaving 10 dead.
• In August 2003 in Chicago, a laid-off worker shot and killed six of his former workmates.
• In November 2004 in Birchwood, Wisconsin, a hunter killed six other hunters and wounded two others after an argument with them.
• In March 2005, a man opened fire at a church service in Brookfield, Wisconsin, killing seven people.
• In October 2006, a truck driver killed five schoolgirls and seriously wounded six others in a school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before taking his own life
• In April 2007, a student shot and killed 32 people and wounded 15 others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, before shooting himself, making it the deadliest mass shooting in the United States after 2000
• August 2007 – Three Delaware State University students were shot and killed in “execution style” by a 28-year-old and two 15-year-old boys. A fourth student was shot and stabbed.
• September 2007 – A freshman student at Delaware State University shot and wounded two other students at a campus dining hall.
• In December 2007, a 20-year-old man killed nine people and injured five others in a shopping center in Omaha, Nebraska.
• In December 2007, a woman and her boyfriend shot dead six members of her family on Christmas Eve in Carnation, Washington.
• In February 2008, a shooter who is still at large tied up and shot six women at a suburban clothing store in Chicago, leaving five of them dead and the remaining one injured.
• In February 2008, a man opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, killing five students and wounding 16 others before laying down his weapon and surrendering.
• July 2008 – A former student shot three people in a computer lab at South Mountain Community College, Phoenix, Arizona.
• In September 2008, a mentally ill man who was released from jail one month earlier shot eight people in Alger, Washington, leaving six of them dead and the rest two wounded.
• October 2008 – Several men in a car drove up to a dormitory at the University of Central Arkansas and opened fire, killing two students and injuring a third person.
• In December 2008, a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit opened fire at a family Christmas party in Covina, California, then set fire on the house and killed himself. Police later found nine people dead in the debris of the house.
• In March 2009, a 28-year-old laid-off worker opened fire while driving a car through several towns in Alabama, killing 10 people.
• In March 2009, a heavily-armed gunman shot dead eight people, many of them elderly and sick people, in a private-owned nursing home in North Carolina.
• In March 2009, six people were shot dead in a high-grade apartment building in Santa Clara, California.
• In April 2009, a man shot dead 13 people at a civic center in Binghamton, New York.
• April 2009 – a man shot dead 13 people at a civic center in Binghamton, New York.
• July 2009 – Six people, including one student, were shot in a drive-by shooting at a community rally on the campus of Texas Southern University, Houston.
• In November 2009, U.S. army psychologist opened fire at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas, leaving 13 dead and 42 others wounded.
• February 2010 – A professor opened fire 50 minutes into at a Biological Sciences Department faculty meeting at the University of Alabama, killing three colleagues and wounding three others
• In January 2011, a gunman opened fire at a public gathering outside a grocery in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people including a nine-year-old girl and wounding at least 12 others. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was severely injured with a gunshot to the head.

For the 2012 murders, I have also provided information about the weapon(s) used and whether they were obtained legally.

• February 2012 – A, 59-year-old male walked into a spa in Norcross, Georgia and shot and killed four people, then turned the gun on himself. Weapon used: .45 caliber pistol; bought legally.
• February 2012 – A 17-year-old male walked into the cafeteria of Chardon High School, Chardon, Ohio, and pulled out a handgun and began shooting at students gathered there before class killing three people and wounding three others. Weapon used: .22 caliber pistol; not known if bought legally.
• March 2012 – Three people were wounded when a 23-year-old male opened fire outside the Tulsa County Courthouse in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gun used: .357 revolver; not bought legally.
• March 2012 – A 30-year-old male entered the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and began shooting. One person was killed and seven wounded in the attack. Weapon used: Two 9mm handguns; not bought legally.
• April 2012 – A 43-year-old male killed seven people and injured three more when he opened fire at the small Christian college in Oakland, California. Weapons used: A semiautomatic handgun with four magazines of ammunition; bought legally.
• May 2012 – A 40-year-old male started shooting inside a Seattle, Washington, café near the University of Washington-Seattle campus killing four people inside the café and shooting a woman near the Town Hall and stole her SUV. Weapons used: Two .45 caliber automatic handguns; Bought legally.
• June 2012 – During an afternoon pool party in an apartment complex near the Auburn University campus in Auburn, Alabama, a, 22-year-old male opened fire  killing three people and injuring three others. Weapon(s) used: unclear;
• July 2012 – A male gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of the new Batman film killing 12 and injuring 58.
• July 2012 – A 44-year-old male opened fire in a crowded bar near the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa injuring 17 people. Weapon used: unclear, but thought by police to have been an AK-47-type rifle.
• July 2012 – A male gunman entered a Theater screening the new Batman film and began firing, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others. Weapons used: a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, a shotgun and a .40 caliber handgun; all bought legally.
• August 2012 – A male gunman killed six people at Sikh temple in Wisconsin before being shot dead by police. Weapon used: 9mm handgun; bought legally.
• October 2012 – A 45-year-old male opened fire in a spa in Spa, Brookfield., Wisconsin, killing his wife, and two other women, and injuring four others before killing himself. Weapon used: .40mm semiautomatics handgun; unclear whether bought legally.
• December 2012 – A, 22-year-old male opened fire on holiday shoppers at the Clackamas Town Center in Oregon, killing two people and then himself. Weapon used: AR-15 rifle; weapon stolen.

And now, we have yet another mass murder, this time at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the largest mass murder ever in an elementary school. Police found a Sig Sauer and a Glock pistol inside the school and a .223 caliber rifle in the shooter’s car; weapons were owned legally by the shooter’s mother, who was among those killed.

Alright, America! What is it going to take to put an end to this insanity? What is it going to take to break the chains (aka money) that tie so many legislators to the NRA and its archaic and incorrect reading of the Second Amendment?

It is past time for a revolution by the majority of citizens who want the kinds of controls placed on gun ownership as have been in place in civilized nations, especially assault rifles and automatic weapons with large ammunition clips that not even the NRA can justify as being needed hunting game and self-protection.

Please! Write or call your federal and state legislators and demand they 1) refuse campaign donations from the NRA and 2) take immediate action to enact sensible laws to restrict the kinds of weapons that can be owned lawfully to those that can be used for reasonable purposes.