Summer is Coming! Got Your Bulletproof Beach Blanket?

Sunday, June 8 -- Two Las Vegas policeman executed, one civilian shot dead by self-proclaimed Tea Party revolutionaries.  After barricading themselves in a Wal-Mart, one shooter was killed by police, the second killed herself.

Tuesday, June 10 -- A high school freshman in Oregon shot dead by classmate, one teacher wounded. (This was considered so "normal" that it wasn't even front page news.  I had to search for the article and found it in an inside section of the newspaper.)  Shooter killed himself after being cornered by police.

Wednesday, June 12 -- One priest shot dead in his Phoenix church, a second priest wounded.  Shooter still at large.

what eye thynk:  Where do we find Congressman willing to stand up and admit that we are losing our country and our children's futures to gun violence?  Where are the legislators who are appalled by a world where a school shooting ceases to be front page news?

How many people do you have to kill and where do you have to kill them to become a headline?

And still pro-gun nuts want more gun access.  They want to live in a world where strapping an AK-47 to your back when you go out to mow your lawn is normal behavior.   They want us to believe that if everyone carried a gun wherever they went--home, school, church, restaurant, movie theater, beach, shopping mall--all the killing would stop.  But, when everyone is armed, how do we tell the rifle-toting guy who is just out walking his dog from the shoulder-holster accessorized woman who is looking to overthrow the government or avenge some perceived social slight?

Bill Maher may have put it best:  "We are at the intersection of Open Carry Rd. and Stand Your Ground Place.  According to the NRA's basic principles, you have the right to carry a weapon that may cause a reasonable person to believe they are in danger of great bodily injury. And they have the right, if they feel that way, to respond with deadly force.  It's a perpetual violence machine."

I saw an ad from an Oklahoma company the other day that is marketing neon orange bulletproof blankets to schools at a cost of $1000 each using this cheery text:  "9:02 a.m.  Who would have guessed that on a quiet spring morning their lives would be changed forever by a sudden school tragedy."

What does it say about us that we accept school shootings as inevitable; and, rather than working to neutralize the threat of gun violence at its source, we choose instead to create a $1000 band-aid and a marketing plan?