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Commentary: We’re a nation held hostage by gun nuts

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There are only three sure things in life: death, taxes and the hell you’ll pay if you say anything negative about guns in any context anywhere. Some people are particularly passionate in their support.

You know what I’m talking about. And you know who you are.

What’s the deal with us, anyway? Were all of the people who came from Europe to colonize this land centuries ago gun nuts who have passed their interest along to future generations? Because nearly every civilized country seems to hold it together pretty well on the gun thing — except us.

Nations like Japan and Norway have like 10 or 12 deaths by gun annually while we have more like 30,000.

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It didn’t seem all that long ago when one of those lunatics went on a shooting spree maybe once every two years or so. Not anymore. Now, I swear, it seems we’re hearing about a bullet-spewing frenzy every day.

Even since Elliot Rodger went on a rampage in Santa Barbara, more shootings have occurred. Just about every morning now, we wake up to learn that someone is shooting up a school or their place of business, or just cruising down the street randomly firing at whomever and whatever is moving.

And you know what they all have in common? That’s right. Easy access to firearms.

They’re packing, and not just a pistol but semi-automatic weaponry. Without it, they would simply be angry malcontents screaming into the air. With firearms, they are murder machines.

I realize that this is a ridiculous thing to point out. But that very simplicity is what this debate has been reduced to. People with knives and pop bottles, tire irons and baseball bats can cause injury and death. But not on the random outsized scale of guns.

You know what the gun-rights advocates screamed when Rodger gunned down so many innocents but also caused death with a knife and car? You know what: “Well gee, what are you gonna do now, ban knives and cars?” As if this is a perfectly reasonable response to someone calling for common-sense firearm regulation.

News flash: It isn’t.

Why does the National Rifle Assn. oppose even the smallest amount of gun registration and background checks and accountability? Because it is in the business of helping its gun-dealer members sell guns. Because it doesn’t care about you, about me, about society, about whether we all just blow each other away in cold blood.

It. Doesn’t. Care.

Another thing: No one is talking about banning guns or coming into your house to take them away. So that doesn’t fly. The government isn’t going to come for your guns and then hold you prisoner while it declares martial law. Sorry. Ain’t a valid argument.

Now I know I’m going to get hate mail for this, because the most common response to anyone suggesting that we make it tougher to get guns into the hands of bad guys and crazy people is, “You’re never going to be able to stop it. It’s pointless. Your liberal B.S. doesn’t trump my 2nd Amendment right to arm myself to the teeth.”

Actually, my liberal B.S. does trump your right to oppose reasonable limits on gun procurement. It’s been proved that when you make it even a little bit more difficult to get a gun, murder rates go down. It’s simply a fact.

So why isn’t trying to make things safer, to stop the madness, even on the table? Why is the NRA allowed to cow every politician in the land into silence? Why are even journalists like me afraid to discuss this for fear of being harassed?

Perhaps the best question of all to those who oppose stricter gun laws is why are you OK living in a country that experiences regular mass shootings?

Times Community News, North, columnist RAY RICHMOND has covered Hollywood and the entertainment business since 1984. He can be reached via email at ray@rayrichco.com and Twitter at @MeGoodWriter.

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