Community Corner

With So Many Lives Taken, Should Firearms Be Taken, Too?

The Navy Yard shootings raise questions — about our response.

Virginia Delegate Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum, a Patch blogger, had a simple but profound question about the Navy Yard shootings earlier this month that left 12 people, plus the gunman, dead.

“Where,” he asked, “is the outrage?”

What we now know is this: Aaron Alexis bought his shotgun legally, despite having serious, and documentable, mental problems.

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And that, really, along with a seemingly growing numbness to shooting deaths, is what led to Plum’s question. He was disturbed not only about such an obviously troubled man being able to buy a shotgun but also by what he sees as a collective resignation to accept such tragedy.

Predictably, comments to his blog began to flow, both pro and con, about gun control.

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Does that mean the laws are too weak? Or that the enforcement of laws is too weak? Are we becoming frighteningly numb to shooting deaths?

Tell us in the comments.



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