Saturday, December 15, 2012

If not now, when?

Aurora, Colorado.

Portland, Oregon.

Newtown, Connecticut.

After each one of these mass shootings, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that now was not the time to discuss gun control. And we know who pulls the strings in Mr. Carney's back.

Okay, President Obama, when is the time for that discussion?

The purpose of a gun is to kill.

You point the weapon. You squeeze the trigger. The target falls down.

For the gun nuts out there who believe that their cache of weapons will protect them against the onslaught of a government gone bad - a gun is no match against a helicopter gunship, a tank, a missile or a nuclear weapon. If the government wants to turn its weapons on you, you won't stand a chance.

The time for the debate on gun control is here. And it's time that President Obama discover his backbone and stand up to the gun lobby. The election's over, Mr. President. Now's the time to create your legacy. How many more mass killings are we going to hear about in movie theaters, shopping malls and schools? We can't sit here and keep telling ourselves that everything's okay.

It's not okay. There are far too many weapons out on the streets. It's time we did something about it.

Yesterday 20 children were murdered. Those families have been torn apart. Those families will never be the same. Now, instead of planning for the holidays, these families will be planning funerals. And they will be planning those funerals because someone was able to purchase a weapon legally.

Now there's nothing wrong with hunting. I don't want to take away the rifles and shotguns hunters pull out of their closets every hunting season. But there is no legitimate use for assault rifles or semi-automatic rifles.

Now is the time for that debate. Now is the time for that discussion.

Anytime proponents of expanding the police state want a new draconian law on the books, they tell us that it's about the children.

Well, Mr. President, now it really is about the children.

There are twenty dead children. Twenty children who would be alive today were it not for a man with a gun.

It's time to put politics aside. It's time to do what's right. It's time to stop the madness.

Let's put an end to the gun violence, Mr. President. Do it for the children.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Bravo, Mr. Kennedy. I could not have said it better. We were just in Australia, which enacted strict gun control laws in 1996 after a mass shooting, and they have not had a mass murder since. The locals thought Americans had gone mad, that we were so obsessed with the "freedom" to own such destructive weapons. There is no reason for an individual citizen to own such a weapon and the ammunition - none.

Unknown said...

Bravo Mr. Kennedy. I could not have said it better. We were in Australia recently, and they have not had a mass shooting since 1996, when they enacted strict gun control. They think we have gone mad in the USA. The NRA is nothing but a shill for arms manufacturers, and it's time they were called out.