A howitzer in every kitchen

Is it stupidity or corruption or both? Who knows, who cares, either way it’s appalling.

House Speaker Paul Ryan signaled Tuesday he isn’t supportive of the proposals to impose new restrictions on gun purchases, telling reporters “we shouldn’t be banning guns for law abiding citizens.”

During a weekly news conference in the wake of the mass shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 people, the Wisconsin Republican added, “we should be focusing on making sure that citizens who shouldn’t get guns in the first place don’t get those guns.”

As if anyone can know which citizens “should” get guns and which shouldn’t. As if anyone can know that every time, infallibly, at a glance. As if people who sell guns are experts in this new science of Knowing Who Should Have Guns.

And even more to the point, as if anyone “should” have a gun that tears organs apart on entry, a gun that is designed not to disable but to blow to pieces. Why not just cut to the chase and let everyone buy bombs? We’ve got the drones, now give us the bombs – just think of the possibilities!

Ryan also emphasized the failure by law enforcement to respond to reports about the shooter.

“We see a big breakdown in the system here,” he said. “In this particular case, there were a lot of breakdowns — from local law enforcement, to the FBI getting tips they didn’t follow up on, to you know, school resource officers, who are trained to protect kids in these schools and who didn’t do that. That, to me, is the most stunning one of them all.”

Nope. The most stunning one of them all – and the most blown-to-bits one as well – is the fact that the guy the system failed to stop was able to take an AR-15 into that school and blow huge holes through 17 people such that they died, and slightly less lethal holes in others (I can’t find a number for the injured – three are currently still in hospitals). If Cruz had not been able to take such a deadly gun into the school, the failure to do anything about him would not have been so “stunning.”

There is no reason to make it possible for enraged civilian men to have military weapons.

Pressed about whether Congress was doing enough as students from the Florida high school make the rounds on Capitol Hill to urge top leaders to take action, Ryan again pointed to the problems preventing the incident, saying there was “a colossal breakdown” at the local level.

“Of course we want to listen to these kids, but we also want to make sure that we protect people’s due process rights and legal constitutional rights while making sure that people who should not get guns don’t get them,” Ryan replied. “This kid was clearly one of those people.”

The Second Amendment to the Constitution predates assault rifles.

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