Who's Laughing Now? Gun Control

So they're coming together.  The Democrats and Republicans have finally found an issue on which they can both agree when it comes to gun control.  Mental health.

Whoopee.

While there's no doubt that mentally ill people are the ones behind these horrendous mass killings, that still doesn't do anything about the fact that they can get their hands on weapons in the first place.  For all the celebrating (me, included) on just getting a gun control bill to the floor for debate, really, how far have we come to our goal?

Saturday Night Live last night did a very funny (and, to me, heartbreaking) opener on just what's been agreed to so far, and for all the laughs and elbow nudging, the comics playing the two senators who triumped over recalcitrant GOP members to allow the bill to be debated, there was a sad, sad truth.

As the comedians played to laughs that Domino's would no longer be able to give away free rifles with pizzas, or allow people to shoot more than two guns at a time, after this legislation, the sobering reality is that they might very well have been some of the few things this potential bill is good for.

I watched the mom of one of the Newfield victims tearfully plead for this bill to be passed so that "what happened to us" (here she broke down) "doesn't happen to you," on the morning news today, followed immediately by a "criminologist" who said that this type of legislation would have no effect on the people who would commit this kind of crime, anyway.

What's getting lost here, with the emphasis on mental health, is the availability of guns.  This bill doesn't go anywhere near far enough on limiting them, for those with mental health issues, or those without.

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