Live and in Color

Greetings my fellow Observers,

Mad Man has always thought about it becoming a reality and now it has finally happened. Our society's unwillingness to regulate gun ownership and the availability of guns has turned the murder of two people into a live and unscripted reality show.

A young and aspiring 24 year old news reporter for WDBJ-TV, Alison Parker, was fatally shot in the head and chest, while her 27 year cameraman, Adam Ward was shot and killed after being struck in the head and torso. Also shot and wounded in the back was the local Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Ms. Vickie Gardner who was being interviewed for a promotional piece about  
Roanoke, Virginia.

The killer, a former WDBJ-TV reporter named Vester Lee Flanagan II, an African American then fled the scene before committing suicide. Mr. Flanagan took his own life by shooting himself in the head after being in a car chase while earlier writing to proclaim that he had been bullied and the co-workers that he shot had complained to management about him. 

Another twist in this real live saga of gun control gone wild was the fact that Tim Gardner, Ms. Gardner's husband was watching the interview when the shooting occurred. He was amazed that after being shot, his wife arose and walked to the ambulance. The surgeon who operated on Ms. Gardner stated that if the bullet was a couple of centimeters over, she would not be walking or alive.

Again, we see a the real life drama of someone crazy who was able to easily get their hands on a gun. It has also been reported that Mr. Flanagan possessed more than one firearm. Mad Man is not real excited about anything positive coming of out of this killing as it relates to gun control legislation. How could it after all those children were killed at Sandy Hook and nothing happened?

There is a very simple reason why gun control laws will never change and if you stop, look, and listen, this reason is as clear as the sky on a sunlit day at the beach. There are white men in America who feel that they will eventually need their guns to take back America when all of the brown and black people take over. Why else would the white politicians in this country allow these devastatingly dreadful acts of gun violence continue?

And African Americans should come down off of their high horse when discussing "crazy white people." No one is immune to the psychological epidemic in this country that is perpetuated by those who use guns to take innocent lives. And Black people should stop blaming white people for all of this society's ills. Guns in the hands  of any mentally ill person is a murder and a tragedy waiting to happen, regardless of the color of their skin.

A simple first step, and Mad Man has mentioned this before, is to register guns just like you would register a car. By doing this the sale of the gun could be followed from the store to who bought the gun and who they sold it to. Just think about what could be done if the gun that Mr. Flanagan used to kill those two young hardworking people and wounded another could be traced back to the person or store who sold it to him?

This registration procedure will allow anyone who passes a background check to own as many guns as they please, but it would also make gun store owners scrutinize those to whom they sell guns more closely. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there will be any changes and after these murders and the senseless murder of those children, it doesn't look like anything will ever change.

Mad Man