Is this who we are?

I’m not a person that does a lot of watching the TV. I also don’t listen to the radio very much. So Monday morning when I got up and pushed the search button on the radio of my car. I was very much shocked at hearing about the horrific mass killing that happen in Las Vegas. Somehow in the back of my mind I wanted the anchorman to say “Just kidding”, or “you’ve been pranked”, or I would have even accepted “April fools”  But none of this happened;

 All I could hear was the astronomical numbers of nearly 50 people killed and 400 people injured. And throughout the day these numbers swelled to nearly sixty killed and over 500 people injured. 

Somehow this man came to the Mandalay Bay hotel with 10 large assault weapons and fired into a crowd of people enjoying an outdoor concert. And our response to this type atrocity, this complete and utter dismissal of respect for the human life, has never been to legislate stricter laws concerning gun control. So there is no reason to believe that it will be in the future, God forbid if we steps on the toes of the second amendment. Instead we direct the blame on terrorism, or mental sickness, or racism or in the case of “Harvest Festival Massacre”, security of the hotel. We will point the blame on anything but the guns in which the psychopaths use to decimate people's lives and families.

When 7 gang members are killed by a rival gang with machine guns (St Valentine’s Day Massacre) we immediately banned the use of machine guns. Yet when the peaceful community of Nickel Mines PA is accosted by some nut case who shoots 11 little girls ages 6-13  our response is not to legislate laws to avoid these kind of attacks, but the promote forgiveness all the while giving more freedoms and protections to the people that commit these crimes.

After a while it becomes apparent that those politicians in charge don’t want to reach a solution, and   history has not found even one politician innocent. Even though this country is eating itself alive like a cancer, nothing is done. Politicians are lining their palms in gold with the gratuities of their silence, while the under-girded perpetrators do all they can to avoid laws that regulate gun control.  

Paul Ryan’s Speaker of the House comments that “We won’t let this define us, this is not who we are” may motivate some, but the hate that under-girds these type of mass killing proves it’s all a lie. This shooting which we call the “Harvest Festival Massacre” though it is billed as the largest killing in history is only more proof of our short term memory and our failure to take the necessary steps to avoid such atrocities against our citizens has been a problem for longer than most of us have been alive. 

Don’t be fooled this is not the largest or worst mass killing in United States History, it just the one that happen too recently for us to ignore.  By saying this is the worst mass murder in history is to deny the lives of the hundreds of innocent women children and men that have died, and to pervert the truth of our history. 

Contrary to was Paul Ryan said  Mass killing may not be how we want to be identified in this great country we call the United States, but it is most surely who we have up to today been.

Date	Location	City, State		killed	wounded
June  2016	Pulse Night Club	Orland Fl.		49	49
December 2015	Inland Regional Center	San Bernardino		14	22
September 2013	Navy yard	Washington DC		12	3
Dec 2012	Sandy Hook Elementary School	Newtown Conn		27	1
July 2012	Century 16 movie Theater	Aurora Colo.		12	58
April 2009	American Civic Assn.	Binghamton NY		14	4
April  2007	Virigina Tech	Blackburg Va.		32	17
April 1999	Columbine High School	Columbine Colo		13	24
October 1991	Luby’s  Cafeteria	Killeen TX		22	20
June 1990	General Motors Acceptance Corp	Jacksonville Fla		10	4
August 1986	Edmond Post Office	Edmond Okla		14	6
July 1984	McDonald's massacre	San Ysidro Calif		21	19
August 1966	University of Texas Tower shooting	Austin Tx		17	31
June 1921	Black Wall Street	Tulsa Ok	250 recorded dead because of mass grave no one is sure
October 1919	Mass Lynching	Little Rock Ark	230 called a lynching
1917	East St. louis Massacre	St. Louis Illinois	40-100 all African Americans most women and children
December 1890	Wounded Knee Massacre	Wounded Knee Creek South Dakota	90 Native American  men 200 women and children 4 White soldiers,  6 were awarded a medal of honor
April 1873	The Colfax Massacre	Colfax Louisiana	150 African Americans, 3 white American