Two telling responses to the Oregon shootings
OCTOBER 2, 2015
... President Barack Obama ... was exasperated ... “Each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough,” he said. “It’s not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. It does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America” ...
“It’s a horrible thing to behold, horrible,” Trump said, but he accompanied that thought with a verbal shrug. There’s no way to institutionalize everyone who’s mentally ill, Trump said, so some of them are inevitably going to shoot people. “You’re going to have these things happen,” he said. Fellow Republican candidate Jeb Bush, when asked about the Oregon shootings, said incredibly: “Look – stuff happens” ...
... Quaint as it may sound, we need to demand that our leaders heed what a significant majority of Americans are telling them in polls.
That means along with investing in mental health treatment and awareness, Congress should pass tougher background checks for gun sales. It means removing obstacles so that states can share information on mental health issues of prospective gun buyers. It means a ban on military style assault weapons, and it means closing loopholes allowing “straw purchasers” to pass background checks before passing guns to those who can’t ...
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article37394304.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
