When Then?

According to the statistics, 2012 has been just a sort of average year when it comes to random mass killings by men with guns. This is just the new normal, I guess.

On Tuesday, I man with a gun opened fire in a Happy Valley, Oregon shopping mall, randomly killing and wounding innocent shoppers.

On Thursday the Michigan Legislature approved a law that permits carrying concealed weapons in schools and day care centers.

On Friday yet another man with a gun slaughtered 20 kindergarteners and 7 other people in Newton, Connecticut using guns owned by a teacher who worked at the Sandy Hook Elementary School where the tragedy occurred.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney refused to answer questions about gun control, saying there will be a time for discussion, but "I don't think today is that day."

When then?

Meanwhile, the gun fetishists get to own the national dialog, boasting about how if they had been there with their own arsenal, they would have made like Rambo, and all would today be happy in Happy Valley. Only about half of Americans favor stricter gun control laws, a heart-breakingly small percentage considering this new normal nightmare. Americans own 300 million guns. Last night, a friend, in a sad moment of gallows humor, suggested that in the future every one of us will walk around with our own personal attack drone hovering over us, just waiting to unload on anyone who looks at us the wrong way. This is sick. 

Today is the day to talk about gun control. Every day is the day. Silence is complicity with the new normal.

And, good lord, the answer is not to arm kindergarten teachers.

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