Off Topic Again – Terrorism and Gun Control

It truly is bizarre. The way America steadfastly ignores its gun problem stands in stark contrast to its incredible over-reaction to anything labeled ‘terrorism’.

We brought Boston to a screeching halt in order to hunt for two guys who had been labeled terrorists. Without that label who knows what we would have done?

Yet a gunman who kills far more people – young children to boot – elicits a tired and quickly fading reaction.

We have a ‘war’ on terrorism. But not a ‘war’ on guns.

We ignore the daily death count of people killed by gun toting criminals and accident prone innocents, but treat a deranged duo of brothers as an epochal event.

Yes the Boston Marathon attack was horrible. But so was the Newtown school attack. In many ways the latter was worse: one criminally inclined person killed far more innocent bystanders than the two criminals in Boston.

But last week, amid all the over reaction and hyperventilation about terrorism, any chance of tightening our gun laws, just a tiny and not very invasive bit, was cast into oblivion.

If we justify the daily slaughter as being somehow ‘normal’ and not an attack on America, how come we regard the Boston attack as an epic event and an attack on America? Apparently the occasional spraying of rapid firing machine gun bullets around a school room is not an attack on America. It is simply Americans being Americans. But two home made bombs in Boston? That is an attack on America. Apparently we don’t bomb each other.

Our inability to tell the difference or to see the similarity between the two events is staggering.

The Boston event?

Wow that is a major attack. It deserves 24/7 media coverage. It requires thousands of military and paramilitary personnel to react. It offends our sense of righteousness. It demands a ‘total war’ response. It sets off the lockdown of an entire city. It justifies the destruction of our civil liberties. The subsequent pursuit of security trumps personal liberty at every turn.

The Newtown event?

Snore. Horrible when it was reported. Easily forgotten except by those affected. And certainly, under no circumstances whatever, does it justify even one iota of intrusion into our constitutionally protected – so-called – right to bear arms. No sir. Not one iota. Our personal liberty must not be abridged. Not even in the face of dozens of dead children shot in cold blood.

Our liberties reign supreme.

Except in the case of terrorism. In that case we don’t mind living in a surveillance happy, background check constrained, police searching, internet and phone tapping, secret trial infested swamp.

Amazing what one word can do to our defense of, and belief in, freedom. If that word is terrorism.