Elmer Lindstrom's Blog: Panic at the Disco

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Panic at the Disco

Not the kind of thing one likes to wake up to with one's morning coffee. A massacre at a gay club in Orlando. Another American bloodbath perpetrated by an American with an assault rifle.

Apparently there were approximately 300 people in the club. One in three were either killed or seriously injured.

The argument will now commence over whether this is primarily a hate crime or an act of terror. The Republicans will opt for terror - I have yet to hear a Republican officeholder utter the word "gay" in relation to the slaughter.

For my part, I don't much care. There will be homophobes in this country for the foreseeable future. Likewise, we will continue to have no shortage of religious extremists of many flavors. And there are, no doubt, a thousand other reasons why a violent, unstable person might elect to commit mass murder.

Over time I am optimistic we will become a much more tolerant society. But deranged persons will always walk among us. We can't pass any law that will alter that basic fact.

But we could pass a law that prohibits private ownership of assault weapons. And we could (like other countries have done) require citizens to surrender the assault weapons they already own.

Would all such weapons be surrendered? Of course not. My hope is that many of them would be buried in back yards. An excellent place for them. But over time their numbers would dwindle.

The Second Amendment fetishists would scream to high heaven of course. So be it.

In other news, a couple of very nice days. And now a couple not-so-nice.

But the forecast for next week sounds promising. I am contemplating my next offensive against the rain forest. One more sector on the western front needs to be cleared... Am I up for it? I do not yet know...

In the meantime a couple of pics.