Gun violence rears its ugly head again

I am so damn tired of guns.

We have the highest murder rate of any civilized nation and we have the highest rate of incarcerations. Does that mean we're the worst people in the world?

Hardly.

It means that the bad people in our country, the ones who ignore laws, have the easiest time getting guns here than they would in any other nation.

Just a couple of hours ago, a gunman with a shotgun walked into the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and opened fire. He shot a security guard and possibly one other person before another guard shot and wounded him.

I can already tell you the National Rifle Association's take on this story. The NRA will tell you that the system worked, that the fact the security guard was armed kept the situation from getting even worse. The fact that there were two guns present instead of one saved lives.

The NRA is riding high these days. Even Democrats are afraid to support restrictions on gun laws, because they know the Bubbas and Billy Bobs who own thousands of guns will vote on that one issue alone.

But I believe there will come a time when Americans view the NRA the same way they have come to view the tobacco companies -- as purveyors of death.

I don't care if someone wants a gun to protect their home and family, but the idea of people out walking on the street fully armed is repugnant to me. Why are we the only country of any importance that allows this? It can't be solely because of our Wild West heritage.

I know the NRA sees the Second Amendment as sacred, but the founding fathers never envisioned that people would want fully-automatic weapons capable of shooting down helicopters or stopping tanks.

No matter what Joe Sixpack thinks, he is not capable of holding off the government if the government wants him. All he'll do is kill his neighbors or family in the process.

During the five years I wrote a newspaper column, I made that same remark once. A reader said that maybe Joe couldn't do it by himself, but with his brother Bob and a couple of his neighbors, he might be able to.

That's such a load of crap. All it takes is one small bomb to wipe out Joe's entire block. What restrains the government isn't an armed citizenry, it's public opinion.

I know President Obama regrets his remark last year about bitter people "clinging to their guns," but just because he regrets it doesn't mean it isn't true.

It's time for America to grow up and enter the 20th century.

Yes, I said the 20th century.

Right now we're more than 100 years behind the curve.