America's Problem is Not Guns

It seems we have a shooting problem, not a gun problem here in America, so much so that time is being spent on redefining mass shootings. HuffPost ran a story the other day on this subject. In it they cited this:

The growing number of mass killings over the past five years left the country in search of a term that would distinguish mass murder by gun from those using other weapons. Mass shooting has gained favor as the obvious choice. Though the FBI doesn't specifically define mass shooting, it does define mass murder, calling it a single incident in which a perpetrator kills four or more people, not including himself or herself. The FBI defined mass murder to distinguish it from serial murder. That definition provides the basis for the unofficial definition of mass shooting that has gained use in recent years

They went on to list the following mass shootings that “made waves” in the recent few years.

• September 16, 2013 - Navy Yard, Washington – 12 dead
• July 26, 2013 – Hialeah, Florida – 7 dead
• June 7, 2013 – Santa Monica, California – 6 dead
• April 24, 2013 – Manchester, Illinois – 5 dead
• April 21, 2013 - Federal Way, Washington – 5 dead
• March 13, 2013 – Herkimer County, New York – 5 dead
• December 14, 2012 – Newtown, Connecticut – 27 dead
• September 27, 2012 – Minneapolis, Minnesota – 7 dead
• August 5, 2012 – Oak Creek, Wisconsin – 7 dead
• July 20, 2012 – Aurora, Colorado – 12 dead
• May 31, 2012 – Seattle, Washington – 6 dead
• April 2, 2012 – Oakland, California – 7 dead
• February 22, 2012 – Norcross, Georgia – 5 dead
• October 12, 2011 – Seal Beach, California – 8 dead
• January 8, 2011 – Tucson, Arizona – 6 dead
• August 3, 2010 – Manchester, Connecticut – 9 dead
• November 29, 2009 – Parkland, Washington – 5 dead
• November 5, 2009 – Fort Hood, Texas – 13 dead
• April 3, 2009 – Binghamton, New York – 14 dead
• March 10, 2009 – Geneva County, Alabama – 11 dead
• March 29, 2009 – Carthage, North Carolina – 8 dead  

While this list is in and of itself alarming it is minute when compared to the list Reddit publishes on its Guns Are Cool website, which list 254 mass shootings in 2013 alone.

Did you get that people? 254 mass shooting in the past nine months of this year alone! Right, America doesn't have a gun problem, it's a shooter problem. Give me a break!

Last year with the mass killing of school children at Sandy Hook Elementary School I really thought that America would wake up and realize we needed to do something about guns in our society. Wow, was I naive, not only have we not taken any steps toward gun control, we are recalling legislators who stand up for gun control legislation.

Today I received an email from Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly who continue to work hard for expanded gun legislation. You remember Gabby Giffords, a member of Congress from Arizona who was one of those that barely survived the mass shooting of January 8, 2011 in Tuscon, Arizona.

We have become a joke around the world in almost every civilized nation. They just don't get how America puts up with this gun carnage. And the sad thing is none of the lists I have mentioned include the shootings and killings that occur on a daily basis in almost every major city in the U.S. But those don't count, killing of another human being one on one doesn't fit into the matrix.

So I end this diatribe as I began it, "I'm not giving up, I have just had enough." I wonder when the rest of you out there will have had enough and decide to do something about it. I'm afraid the blood shed is really on all our hands.