Have we gone crazy?

the OK Corral in 1880

A few weeks back (October 26) we noted the the umpteenth anniversary (134th actually and 3pm MT, 5PM EDT) of the shoot out at the OK Corral.  Wyatt, his brothers and Doc Holliday got into a pitched battle with the Clantons and other Cowboys. Law enforcement won out over the bad guys.

 If the absolutists in the gun rights department were around then, they would make something of a concerted effort to make sure that we all realize that guns don't kill people. It is a distinction without a difference.  Yesterday, the Senate blocked an amendment that would have restricted persons on the "no fly" list from buying guns.  You can't fly on an airplane because you are a risk but you can freely buy a gun.   Hmmm.

It is no small comfort to me that we in the United States are 50% more likely to own a gun than the average citizen

Tombstone in 1881

 of Yemen (2007 stats) and that our death by gun rate is above 14 per 100,000 - roughly the same as hypertension as a killer.  We also own, as a nation, about 40% of ALL the privately owned guns on earth. That's a nice number - about 300 million guns. 

I'm also fairly ticked by persons hiding behind the 2nd Amendment and the careful nurturing of the Amendment through the courts, the all power of the NRA, and the general level of argument that surrounds the debate.  It seems like something we can't talk about. We just have to endure it and those of us who don't believe in the almighty gun as the great debate winner frankly live in fear of those who do. I shouldn't have to go to a political rally and stand in a crowd with a guy with a gun strapped to his hip. It makes me nervous. I never have any assurance that he won't suddenly go loony and draw it and someone else will draw theirs and it will be the OK Corral immediately.

More then anything, people shouldn't be put in the position of throwing themselves in front of loved ones to shield them from bullets. I would of course. We all would. If anything like that threatened my wife or my kids or their kids I would gladly do that without blinking an eye. And I think that is the point on this Friday when we wake up to the cold fact that we need to talk rationally about this issue.

The problem and there is a problem is chronic and we aren't addressing it.  It makes us less of a nation and it kills far too many people, injures too many more and makes many of us feel unsafe.