So we have to do this again. We have to hear of the carnage. We have to see and share the tears of the mourners. We have to be afflicted with the fatuous and hypocritical thoughts and prayers of the gun nuts and their bought and paid for lackeys in Congress. We have to count the dead. Again.About 5pm on March 16, a man named Robert Aaron Long walked into three Atlanta-area massage businesses. Less than 45 minutes later, eight people were dead, including six women of Asian descent, along with a white woman and a Hispanic man.
Say their names:
Daoyou Feng, 44
Hyun J. Grant, 51
Suncha Kim, 69
Paul Andre Michels, 54
Soon C. Park, 74
Xiaojie Tan, 49
Delaina Ashley Yah-un, 33
Yong A. Yu-eh, 63
One other person, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, was shot but survived.
There is obviously reason to think the murders were driven by racial or ethnic bigotry, but at the moment I'm preparing this it's not known for sure.
And frankly right now I don't care about the motive. I care about the fact that it happened and it keeps happening.
Six days later, around 2:30pm on March 22, a gunman carrying AR-15 type of assault rifle walked into a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, and without saying a word opened fire.
Minutes later, 10 people lay dead.
Say their names:
Tralona Bart-kowiak, 49
Suzanne Fountain, 59
Teri Leiker, 51
Kevin Mahoney, 61
Lynn Murray, 62
Rikki Olds, 25
Neven Sta-nis-ic, 23
Denny Stong, 20
Eric Talley, 51
Jody Waters, 65
A man named Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa has been charged with 10 counts of murder. I've heard nothing about motive but with a name like his I guarantee you that in some quarters he has already been labeled a terrorist.
The Colorado shooting was the seventh mass murder in the US of 2021 - that's about one every two weeks. Mass murder is defined as at least four killed in a single incident, not counting the shooter.
Mass shootings, on the other hand, are defined as at least four being being shot but not necessarily killed in a single incident. Colorado marks the 103rd US mass shooting in 2021 - about one every 19 hours.
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| Joe "He-who-must-not-be-named" Manchin |
I bring that last bit up because did it ever occur to you how utterly vapid that phrase is? "I'm a law-abiding gun owner." Every gun owner is "law abiding" - until they're not. Every criminal is "a law-abiding person" - until they're not.
Long bought a gun legally from a local gun shop shortly before his killing spree. He was a law-abiding gun owner - until he pulled the trigger.
Aliwi Alissa legally bought his assault weapon six days before the shooting. So for six days he was a law-abiding gun owner. Until he wasn't.
So I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to hear a thing, not one single damn thing, about the "thoughts and prayers" of the right-wing bozos, bigots, hypocrites, liars, and twits lamely trying to act like they give a damn about the carnage for which they, yes, are responsible because of their opposition to action.
And right now I especially don't want to hear any of the bullcrap about "law-abiding gun owners" and how the rest of us have to abide their fetish as the funeral processions continue because they lack the humanity or conscience to care.
And if any of you want to tell me I'm wrong about you, then unless you are an advocate for strong fun control, unless you agree that the issue is that there are too damn many guns out there and are openly advocating for steps to deal with that, then don't bother - because I am not wrong about you.
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