A police spokesman, struggling to find the way out of his own grief and confusion, said, “I support the second amendment but I think anyone who wants to buy a weapon should have to go through the same testing that we do, like the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality, and training.” That would be a start and cut back dramatically on the number weapons purchased at legitimate gun stores(like the ones the mother of this man owed) and pawn shops. What about gun shows, a major source of weaponry? Thousand attend and buy.

Illegal weapons abound. In this country the guns flow in from the USA. We send them marijauna and they send us weapons of destruction. Millions and millions of handguns and assault weapons are manufactured by companies around the world, enough to outfit thousands of armies and security forces. Are these companies the driving force behind the NRA and their incomprehensible rhetoric? Follow the money.

After the last tragedy, the number of guns purchased increased. “If only someone on the scene had a weapon, he could have been stopped,” they cry. Or more would be killed by the untrained blazing away at the uncaring.

It is the culture of the country, the myths that have to be changed. The worship of a constitution written, not by saints but by flawed men of the eighteenth century. Sensible people recognize that the second amendment refers to what was then the need for a volunteer militia to defend the fledgling country. Other countries, like Switzerland and Israel continue to have that system, but they have conscription and individuals are trained, and the psychotic and unstable are weeded out. Their murder rate is a small fraction, relative to population, to that of the USA.

I fear no change will come out of this tragedy, but I hope that President Obama, no longer facing election, can use this to help the country turn their weapons into lumps of metal.