A Sense of Balance

Okay, people, we are eventually going to have to find something about which to talk other than the Tucson shooting spree. Hardball and The Last Word have already devoted their entire program to that subject for two full days now, as if nothing else was happening in the world. Apparently unnoticed, the government of Lebanon fell, the European economy deteriorated further, and more devastation of war occurred in Afghanistan, just to mention a few items.

Why do we as a nation assume that when something like this happens that it immediately becomes the “new normal?” Much of the pundit discussion revolves around, “how we need to deal with this going forward” as if political rallies will suddenly be filled with crazed gunmen on a routine and regular basis. Reality is that the average politician still stands a higher chance of getting hit by lightening than of getting shot at a political rally. Whatever this shooter was, he was not an average person.

Why are we discussing the need for new laws, when if the existing laws had been enforced this shooter would have had his firearms taken away from him? He had been making death threats to public officials, which is a felony, and law enforcement in Tucson chose to do nothing about it other than to expel him from Pima College. Had he been charged with the felony which he committed and convicted, he would not have been permitted to own a firearm. Laws do no good if they are not enforced. As is the case with most of the hyperventilating about this nation’s problems, we don’t need new laws, we merely need to enforce the ones we have.

Where is the sense of balance? Certainly the event in Tucson was a tragedy, and I certainly don’t mean to minimize it, but during the time that the media has been screaming about the horror of six deaths by gunfire, more than thirty people have died on our highways as a result of drunk drivers, and no one is even whispering about how we can prevent that tragedy. The carnage on our highways is entirely preventable, and the media ignores it completely. Tens of thousands of people killed and hundreds of thousands injured annually on our highways is not worth reporting on, but six people killed by a single crazed shooter is worthy of day after day of endless discussion.

Stop all the silly finger pointing and blaming. If you blame someone else you can be sure that it isn’t your fault; relax, it isn’t your fault. The person
to blame for this is the shooter, and he is in jail and will be judged and punished appropriately.

The Earth doesn’t stop revolving when a tragedy like this happens, and life does not come to a halt. Life is going on; it’s time for us to go on with it. Keep alive the memory of those who are gone, don’t ignore the past, but get on with the business of today.