We have another senseless tragedy on an American college campus, and we ask ourselves....why? A 43 year old former student at an Oakland, California Christian college decides to settle a score by killing seven innocent people. And as we scratch our heads, the obvious question eludes us. When, if ever, will we get real about gun ownership in this land of the free? Americans of all races, creeds, ethnicities, and intentions feel we must have a gun. It is, after all, our Second Amendment right! Isn't that what the National Rifle Association tells us? If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.
Actually, not so much.
The Trayvon Martin case is a startling example of an agressive person with a licensed gun and its result is a 17 year old kid is dead. However, if you simply look at carnage on college campuses, the numbers are startling. Since 1991 (November to be exact), 94 people have lost their lives when somebody who was supposed to studying higher education decided it was a time to kill instead. 33 of them were at Virginia Tech back in '07. Others are more difficult to remember. How about 2 dead at Simon's Rock College, 3 at San Diego State, 4 at the University of Arizona, and two more dead at Virginia Tech in December of last year.
In all, 94 dead in about 20 years. Whether the guns were legal or not almost doesn't matter. It's a broken system that allows people to purchase guns, then go out and kill people. This list of course, doesn't include high schools like Columbine, or post offices, fast food restaurants, or shopping centers (remember Gabby Giffords?). It also doesn't include a 10 year old kid from Norway who was visting his dad in Brooklyn the other day. He was shot in the abdomen by one guy trying to settle a beef in Williamsburg. The young man's father asks the same question so many people do. Why so many guns? What's the point? Thankfully, the 10 year old was released from the hospital after being treated.
I have a friend, a doctor, who specializes in the removal of bullets from the bodies of young people. He has a formidable reputation for bringing gunshot victims back from the brink. How ironic that in the world's most "civilized" nation, there are doctors who make their reputations this way. And sadly, we'll move on from the massacre at Oikos University in Oakland, just like we did after all the others. And we won't give a thought to our love affair with the gun.
Will we?
Listen to The Mark Riley Morning Show Monday through Friday 6 AM to 9 AM on WWRL AM 1600.
Especially outside of New York City, or sometimes even here in New York City, people think that it is very important to have a gun. They think that they need a gun to defend themselves in case there is an intruder.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced a so-called comprehensive immigration plan. And, as usual, Democrats conceded to Republican demands in the name of compromise. Over the last five days, the Judiciary Committee members considered over...
I must admit, I've never been to Oklahoma. I have family friends from there, but it's one part of the Great Plains I've managed to avoid in my life. Yet that didn't stop me from feeling quite a bit of empathy with those folks in...
For over a week, Republicans have refused to focus on anything but so-called scandal. And, it turns out, that's exactly the way they want it. On Thursday, the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, sent a letter to...
A new CNN poll shows Obama's favorability rating at 53 percent. That's up from 51 percent in April, and up from the 51.1 percent from the poll that really counted last November. Like before the scandals, 45 percent of people disapprove of the...
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have made their point – they hate Obamacare. And, just in case anyone didn't get the message the first 36 times they made that point, they're about to waste even more taxpayer...
It turns out the IRS was investigating conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status. Duh! And the TSA has been looking at people seeking to get on airplanes. None of the conservative organizations that the IRS was "targeting" were...
The Associated Press has accused the Justice Department of "massive and unprecedented intrusion." That's according to one of the AP's top executives, after learning that the government secretly acquired two months of the news...
It seems that the Republicans won't stop until their attacks over Benghazi are as vicious as the attack in Benghazi. The Republicans would have you believe that the Obama administration altered the talking points on Benghazi out of political...
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, Monsanto has the right to control our food supply. In a unanimous ruling released this morning, the nine Justices sided with the agricultural giant, and held that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto's...
Yesterday, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives postponed all floor votes so they could hold their ninth hearing about Benghazi. Instead of working on any number of pressing issues effecting Americans, Republicans spent nine...
We have another senseless tragedy on an American college campus, and we ask ourselves....why? A 43 year old former student at an Oakland, California Christian college decides to settle a score by killing seven innocent people. And as we scratch our heads, the obvious question eludes us. When, if ever, will we get real about gun ownership in this land of the free? Americans of all races, creeds, ethnicities, and intentions feel we must have a gun. It is, after all, our Second Amendment right! Isn't that what the National Rifle Association tells us? If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.