What’s wrong with this picture?

Sandy Hook Memorial
Sandy Hook Memorial
Photo by Bbjeter, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

On the one hand:

  • Under our beautiful for spacious skies, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, on December 14, 2012—a horrifying number for one time and one place but apparently not horrifying enough.
  • Guns continue to be among the leading causes of death in the lives of American children and a large number of gun deaths go unreported.
  • From sea to shining sea, there were 23 more mass killings in the year after the massacre at Sandy Hook
  • In our land where purple mountains are majesties, daily and weekend reports of gun deaths of innocent people including children are available to all.  Read and weep.

On the other hand:

  • Although “America the Beautiful” urges Americans to “confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!” liberty seems to have bamboozled law in Georgia’s new Safe Carry Protection Act of 2014 (also known as the “guns everywhere bill”), which will come into effect on July 1, 2014.

This bill, cloaked in the euphemistic language of “defending ourselves,” allows citizens with concealed carry permits , even if they have committed previous gun crimes, to take guns into some bars, churches, school zones, government buildings, and certain parts of airports. Will this make you feel more secure if you live in or travel to Georgia?

The NRA, thrilled with the law, will not be crowning our good with brotherhood; there’s too much innocent blood on their hands.

For further consideration:

Check out this horror story: Just one weekend’s worth of gun shootings.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology