A crazy killer walked into an elementary school today and killed 28 people, including 20 children and his mother.  Facebook is teeming with comments from parents wanting nothing more than to hug their children tightly and let them know they love them.

I certainly agree with those sentiments.  But I am mostly angry and ashamed.  I do not comprehend how this country, supposedly among the most “civilized” in the world, can rationalize and allow the sale of guns to regular citizens.

If I hear one more gun rights supporter assert that guns aren’t the problem or that this maniac would have still found a way to inflict such horror without guns, I will start wishing a horrible, horrible thought, which is that they suffer in the same way all of these poor Connecticut families are now suffering and so many other families have suffered each time one of these senseless tragedies occurs.

To have such demented thoughts disturbs me.  But I can’t help it.  How can we continue to allow people to collect guns just for the hell of it?  There is no justification for it and those who claim the Constitution permits it are idiots.  If you require a rifle to hunt animals for food, I can understand that.  But if you require a gun so that you can hunt people, there should be no way to get one.  Plain and simple.  Full stop.  Other countries manage to differentiate.  Why can’t we?

Now is the time for President Obama to lead.   The nice speech and tears are all well and good, but come on.  Gun control is one of the few areas where I’ve been exceedingly disappointed in his leadership (or lack thereof).  He no longer needs to worry about being re-elected.  So for his press secretary to say that today is not the time to politicize what happened – that’s pure and utter bullshit.  This is not a gray area.  It’s crystal clear.  And no equivocation is necessary.

We all have our disappointments, our frustrations, our fears, our daily stresses. But when I think of all those parents who, in the span of one earth-shattering moment, went from going about their usual routines to having their lives destroyed, there aren’t any words.  It’s too incomprehensible to contemplate.