How long, O Lord, how long?

It's happened again. An act of unspeakable violence perpetrated at the very heart of our national government. But where is the outrage? Where is the anger? Had this been done by a group stereotyped as terroristic, their would be calls for retaliation and for war - punitive strikes and the like. Alas, because   12 innocent people were executed at the whim of what increasingly seems to be a deranged citizen, we look the other way. In the newspaper this morning, an article noted that the alleged perpetrator was under the radar because the warning signs, so clear in hindsight, rose just short of the standard that would keep him away from firearms that amounted to a weapon of not so mass destruction. Before you get all up in arms, I am a firm supporter of the Constitution and all its amendments. However, as a student of individual rights and their regulation (the topic of my doctoral dissertation), I also am very aware that with each and every right we have there is an equal and opposite responsibility and obligation to be exercised by those who seek to exercise that right. Rights do not exist in a vacuum. They are exercised within a free society. When those rights begin to present a clear and present danger to that society, especially its innocents, then regulation by governing authorities is called for. In short, no right is absolute.

Could the massacre at the Navy Yard have been avoided. I am not so sure. BUT I can say affirmatively that it is high time we had a rational and honest discussion about the prevalence of guns in our culture, the nature of the arms we bear, the threat they present to society at large, and how we can get a handle on a culture that sees violence as a form of strength and peace-making as weakness. The fact that a mere technicality (the prohibition of sales of assault rifles to non-state residents in Virginia) kept this soul from obtaining even more lethal weapons makes the point. One mass shooting per month is too many (one is too many). Regulation CAN and WILL decrease gun violence. It's time, Lord, it's time.