Today is a relatively busy day for a retired fart like me. I was going to write a short piece on the world’s ongoing and relentless efforts to separate me from my remaining money. Such ceaseless endeavors come from two main groups … firms promising to make me a literary luminary (if I just send them some money) and politicians (who insist that my small contribution of $50 bucks or so) is all that stands between us and Armageddon. I’ll go back to that at a later date.

I also should mention that I’ve received a number of emails from my few followers asking me to continue. I will for the time being but you may want to spread the word. I also noticed an uptick in visits, mostly from China. Perhaps the title of my last post about American Exceptionalism caught their attention.

Today, I cannot ignore the latest school shooting, this time in Nashville. THREE chidren and THREE adults were slain. We’ve become deadened to such tragedies. It is the 15th such horror since Columbine in 1999, the death toll is now up to 175 innocent children and youth slain. The Republican response will be predictable and utterly sad. They will suggest we turn schools into armed camps, require teachers to carry weapons, or even turn elementary school students into junior Rambos sporting their own deadly hardware.

It goes without saying that this is another example of American exceptionalism. School shootings are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to losing our young ones. Our surfeit of weapons provides so many tragic opportunities for death and destruction, both accidental and inyentional. No other advanced county comes close to our carnage that takes the lives of our young:

Surely, this is a record of which we can be so proud. At the least, it should raise some doubt on the claim that guns promote safety. I would love to see one scintilla of evidence in support of that proposition.

Some three decades ago, I believe, Australia had a horrific school shooting. They were outraged and responded by drastically reducing the number of automatic weapons floating about their streets. It has not been repeated. We, on the other hand, have way more firearms on our streets than citizens. Moreover, we permit almost anyone to secure dangerous weapons meant for warfare. There are an estimated 16 million AR-15s out there … a military grade semi-automatic weapon that is not essential for hunting deer, fowl, or squirrals. It does a great job, however, of mowing down children and teachers.

I need not go on about this example of American exceptionalism, or should I say our American shame. Those that hide behind the 2nd Amendment are, in my opinion, dead wrong. Read the language. Souunds to me as if the founding fathers, fearing too much centralized power would lead to the reestablishment of a monarchy of sorts, wished local governments to maintain ‘well-regulated’ militias. Their fascination with checks and balances led them to promote decentralized military power. That is far, far from Republican arguments that everyone, adults and children, run around sporting the latest killing machines.

Think about this. The westerns we see on TV present a false picture of things back then. Gun violence was greater in many Eastern cities than in places like Dodge City, Kansas. Why? Because local ordinanced banned guns within city limits. The gunfight at the OK corral happened because the Mclaren’s and other cowboys refused to obey this law being enforced by the Earps, though a simmering feud contributed to things.

Still, a lesson might be drawn from this history. We were more civilized back then than we are now. How freaking sad is that!