Just another day in Israel.Colorado is certainly gaining a worldwide reputation these days. But it's not for our magnificent mountains or fantastic skiing. It's for our horrific murders, first in schools and now in churches. What a reputation! Columbine shook us to the core. Wherever I travel, when I say I'm from Colorado, that's the first thing people ask about. Then we had Platte Canyon. And now the Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada and the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Children mowed down by severely depressed classmates and demented adults. Where will this stop?
Of course, we're not the only ones. We've seen mass murders across the country. We've seen so many mass murders that we're almost numb. Just one more shooting to note. Unless you're the parents of the children shot to death in Colorado Springs or Arvada or Columbine or Platte Canyon. Or all the other places where people have died at the hands of a deranged killer.
We are so focused on the threat of international terrorism, real as that is, that we seem to be unable to deal with the frightening fringe right here at home. Why can a crazed kid or enraged adult get his hands on a gun? Why are assault weapons so widely available that they make it easy to murder kids in a classroom or church parking lot?
We have all kinds of laws to keep people we think are threats out of our country. Why don't we have laws that keep automatic weapons out of the hands of those who threaten us in our daily lives?
I am tired of spineless legislators who are so afraid of the gun lobby that they won't vote to ban assault weapons. I am tired of hearing that "guns don't kill people; people kill people," when it's people who use guns to murder others. I'm sure the founding fathers, who gave us the Second Amendment, could not have imagined grenade launchers and shoulder-held rocket launchers. Are those now also protected by the Second Amendment?
I am tired of having 3 million Americans who refuse to consider any compromise on the possession and use of guns ruling over the majority of Americans who want to bring some sense to the availability of guns. These citizens want to keep guns out of the hands of people with a history of mental illness or spousal abuse or felony convictions.
It's not the Second Amendment that's the problem, it's those who adamantly refuse to agree to any limits on gun use at all.
So, what can a concerned citizen do? Here in Colorado, a teenager, Ben Gelt, got an initiative on the ballot to close a loophole in the background check law. The Internet provides a superb vehicle for organizing like-minded citizens to petition our lawmakers, both here in Colorado and in Washington, to do the right thing when it comes to gun legislation. Through the Web, we can organize protests, phone calls, and e-mail campaigns to make sure our elected representatives know where the majority of us stand.
We can make sure those who have died in these brutal mass killings are not forgotten, that their deaths give us the voice and the courage to stand up for reasonable laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. The best memorial for them would not be a monument, but instead laws that limit the kinds of weapons available and access to those weapons.
Limiting the use of guns does not deny one the right to own and shoot weapons. The right to bear arms is important in our culture. But it should not be an unlimited right. How many more children and young people will die before we figure this out?
(Schoettler was Lieutenant Governor in the final Romer administration)
Just another day in Israel. I loved this line, with the living, breathing interpretation of the word 'is' and all...