I had planned a light-hearted Christmas column, but the events of recent days seem to call for something more serious.
Believe it or not, I am not particularly liberal. I am not particularly conservative, either. Instead, I am with millions of other Americans, somewhere in the middle — liberal on some issues, not so much on others.
Then things happen like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and I turn into what a lot of people think is a raving liberal lunatic. It’s when I say we have to have gun control.
There are those, however, who say I become a conservative crackpot because I say mental health care shouldn’t be optional for those who have been diagnosed with an illness or otherwise demonstrate the need — it should be required. Forget the constitutional right to walk away from a mental health care facility or quit taking your medicine.
And, I become a real hero to some when I say a trial and prison is just too good for people who commit atrocities like the Sandy Hook shootings. I know: That makes me a vigilante, which is bad, and really not any better than the lunatic who pulls the triggers in these shootings.
Still ...
By now you know the facts: 20 little girls and boys were murdered in their classrooms with rounds fired from the civilian equivalent of the military’s AR-15. As I write this, authorities say they don’t know why Adam Lanza targeted youngsters at Sandy Hook, their teachers, principal and other adults. He also killed his mother, and turned a gun on himself when he heard emergency crews approaching.
Lanza apparently wreaked this carnage with guns legally purchased by his mother. Nancy Lanza was said by one friend to enjoy the act of shooting guns — and apparently shooting the .223-caliber Bushmaster is a real kick.
Those same friends said she was a charitable soul. They knew she was concerned about her youngest son, but she had not shared the details with them.
A relative assured reporters that if Adam Lanza needed psychiatric help, Nancy Lanza would have made sure he had it. Court records reflect she was getting nearly $300,000 in alimony so she certainly could have afforded the best treatment available for her son, who schoolmates described as smart, but socially inept.
Nancy Lanza sounded a little off center to me. Her sister-in-law, Marsha Lanza, described Nancy as a “prepper,” according to the Belfast Times. This was a new term to me, but apparently it is a movement of people who have taken to stockpiling guns and food should the nation’s economy crash. Sounds like survivalists who live in very nice homes, don’t work for a living and still can count on nearly $300,000 a year to live on.
As has happened too many times, this slaughter has brought forth another effort to control guns, specifically assault-type weapons such as the Bushmaster. I honestly have little hope that meaningful legislation will pass. Congress is too scared of the National Rifle Association and the gun industry.
Personally, I don’t think the NRA represents gun owners any better than Congress represents Americans, but they are a strong lobby.
How strong is the gun industry? Well, the FBI did more than 154,000 background checks on Black Friday this year. They don’t track sales, but conventional wisdom is that 154,000 or more guns were sold. Sales between individuals do not require such checks.
As usual, lawmakers are climbing on the “we’ve-gotta-do-something” bandwagon. Even NRA fave Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is quoted as saying it is time to rethink gun control. Gee, Joe, isn’t that like shutting the barn door after the cow has escaped?
NBC’s David Gregory invited 31 pro-gun lawmakers to appear on “Meet the Press” last Sunday; they all had the good grace to refuse. The NRA was unusually quiet until Tuesday when the organization’s sadness was expressed and a Friday news conference announced.
“We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change,” said President Barack Obama at a memorial service in Newtown.
“Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? ... For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on and make our country worthy of their memory,” Obama said.
I see the president’s words as a prayer — one we should all say until we make this country safer for everyone.
Leeanna Walker is local editor of the Rogers Morning News and the Springdale Morning News. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NWA.