Posted by Jonathan Capehart on December 17, 2012 at 8:23 am
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2012/12/17/surely-we-can-do-better-than-this/
A key piece of my
post on the horror at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday turned
out to be wrong: Adam Lanza did
not enter the kindergarten classroom where his mother taught. She had no
connection to the school. She wasn’t even there when he killed her. Now that we
know Lanza murdered his mother at home then shot his way into the school only
compounds the disbelief and revulsion of such an unfathomable act.
Nor were the children Lanza murdered between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,
as we first thought. As the front page of Sunday’s Post and New York Times made
dramatically clear, most of Lanza’s targets were just 6 and 7 years old. That
they sustained multiple wounds, that Lanza had a semi-automatic weapon, two
handguns and hundreds of bullets at the ready, that he stopped to kill himself
only upon hearing the approach of first-responders broadens the scope of this
tragedy far beyond our fears.
E. J. Dionne is right: This
time has to be different. Yes, President Obama must lead on this issue. But
his voice must be the loudest among many. Whatever action he takes must be
backed up by a Congress unshackled from its bipartisan fear of the National
Rifle Association. This is where Michael Bloomberg comes in.
In the blunt-spoken mayor of New York City, we have an anti-illegal guns
advocate who is unafraid to take on the NRA. That he is a billionaire gives him
the financial power to put his money where his mouth is and to attempt to match
the financial power of the NRA. Said billions also give Bloomberg the
independence to tell the gun lobby to stuff it. This year he started Independence USA PAC, a super PAC that
has as one of its goals electing members of Congress who will crack down on
illegal guns. Mayors
Against Illegal Guns is a Bloomberg creation that now has a coalition of
more than 700 mayors from across the country.
Oh, Bloomberg hasn’t been shy about slamming Obama and other elected
officials who haven’t used their power to make us safer from gun violence. But
now it’s time for all of us to join in the effort. There is a right to bear
arms, but no right is absolute. So, when an elementary school is no longer
sacrosanct, the laws must change. As @stone_circle tweeted
late Sunday afternoon, “Guns are not SACRED. Children ARE.”
“We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them,
we must change,” the president said
last night in Newtown, Conn. “We will be told that the causes of such
violence are complex, and that is true. No single law, no set of laws can
eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our
society, but that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than
this.”
Yes, we can. Yes, we must. It starts with him. It continues with us.
The entirety of this post via The Washington Post (online) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2012/12/17/surely-we-can-do-better-than-this/
