To the World, We Truly Are the Ugly American

Law enforcement personnel at Umpqua Community College on October 1

In 1996 a gunman opened fired in the Australian seaside town of Port Arthur, Tasmania killing 35 people.   Twelve days later--let me say that again...twelve days later--the government of Australia announced a bipartisan agreement enacting sweeping gun-control measures.  It has been nineteen years since that day in Port Arthur--nineteen years that Australia has kept the people within its borders safe from mass shootings.

President Obama spoke for most Americans when he expressed his respect for governments that have refused to sell  their soul for a campaign contribution: "We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings.  Friends of ours, allies of ours--Great Britain, Australia, countries like ours.  So we know there are ways to prevent it."

Countries like Australia look at the U.S. and truly see the Ugly American.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:
"President Obama made a mistake:  Australia is not like the United States.  We decided not to be.  We decided to grow up instead and become a more reasonable, rational society that explicitly values human life... (The U.S.) is a country that values property more than life."

From the Brisbane Times:
"As always, the arrant nonsense from the NRA, and those of like mind, that guns are good, that guns are not the problem, that the president is politicising the issue...Such is the web of lobbying, money, political support and sway..."

News.com.au, a popular news clearinghouse in the land down-under, talked to David Herber, an Australian citizen living in Oregon who offered the opinion:
"The majority of Americans worship the Second Amendment more than the Bible."

what eye thynk:  While I believe the true majority of Americans support the creation of common sense gun regulations, our lawmakers--disproportionately on the right--fear losing their NRA "A+" rating and so choose instead to listen to idiots like Tennessee Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey who wrote on his Facebook page:

"While this is not the time for widespread panic, it is a time to prepare... I would encourage my fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to think about getting a handgun carry permit... Our enemies are armed.  We must do likewise."

Hallelujah! Guns and Jesus in one post.  The man just sewed up his Lt. Governorship for the next 50 years.

The NRA has too many politicians on their payroll, too many weak-minded, self-serving lawmakers who prefer protecting their own cushy government jobs over protecting the citizens of this country. I hold very little hope that the U.S. will grow up anytime soon.   If the deaths of twenty beautiful, innocent children in Sandy Hook can't change the gun conversation in this country, what can?