More than one way to do harm . . .

As usual, the politicians and various groups immediately used the tragedy in Connecticut to uphold their agendas. In this case, gun control was mentioned with the promise by the president to work towards some end on that subject. Guns don't kill people. They need the action of a person in order to be harmful. As someone mentioned, if the teacher had been armed, yesterday's scenario might have been a bit different. Taking away guns won't stop crime. The people who truly want to rob and maim will continue to do so and would have ways to obtain a weapon if they wanted one. Societies that take away guns often have more crime because, now, the general population is unarmed.

Yesterday's tragedy wasn't the guns used so much as the person using them. It is pitiful for political leaders to use such an event to further their current pet cause. Although, it was sure to be said, it was still sad to actually hear such words brought forth in the face of the current events.

Around the same time the Sandy Hook murders were taking place, there was a near-disaster in China when a man armed with a knife slashed 22 small school children and an adult. They were blessed as there were no fatalities. There was also, as of my reading now, not much mention of the event which, in my mind was still a horrible thing to happen to innocent children in school. I had to wonder if it was left in the small print of the news because it happened in a far away place. Or, maybe, it would have diluted the gun control issue as one man manged to do great damage without the use of a gun.

Last week, one of the talk show hosts made mention of murders/harm done in the news that didn't make use of a gun. You take away guns, you deprive moral people of protection and their rights. People with the intent to hurt/kill don't need a gun to carry out their sick desires.

The United States experienced a horrible event that won't soon be forgotten, yesterday. Needless deaths happened and we should all join in the mourning of the loss of innocent lives. When gun control enters the rhetoric, sad events are put on the back burner while politicians use the events to further their own causes. It demeans the time of sorrow.