Gorilla sales skyrocket after latest gorilla attack.

Bad gorilla

OK, this sarcastic humor comes from The Onion... but really, how are we going to stop these gorilla attacks?

Good gorilla

Obvious answer: The only way to prevent gorilla attacks is to have a gorilla in every home.




Q: How many NRA spokesman do you need to change a light bulb?
A: More guns."

Actually, I am pro: second amendment but anti: lack of common sense. In the USA, we almost have a  one person/one gun ratio and we always will have... perhaps forever. But gimme a break. If one of the NRA slogans is "Guns don't kill people. People kill people," then shouldn't we do something about paying attention to the people who buy guns?

One estimate is that as many as 40 percent of all legal gun purchases are made without a background check. A much lower number, say some advocates, is 23 percent. Doesn't really matter which figure is used, either rounded up or rounded down. Fact is, a lot of guns are purchased (or inherited or received as a gift, etc.) without verification of a legal buyer/shooter status.

According to Handdgun Control Inc., an acknowledged anti gun group, a total of 205 people were killed by handguns last year in Japan, Great Britain, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden and West Germany. In the United States, same time frame, 10,728 were killed by handguns.

Dispute the figures if you choose, but LOTS MORE were killed in the USA by every count.

And if only the bad or crazy kill most of the people, then do statistics need to prove this is not acceptable... or is it ok because that is such a small number compared to the whole. But what if it were just one... and that one was yours?

Reminds me of the old starfish story:

Two men were walking on the beach, naturally littered with washed-on-the-shore starfish. Every few steps, one of the men would stop, pick up a starfish and throw it back ito the sea. After this had happened about half-dozen times, the other man chided him. 

"Why are you doing that? There are thousands of starfish on the beach. You can't really make a difference."

First man flipped the starfish he was holding back into the ocean. "I can to that one."

Sadly, we lead in school shootings too, which is a poor school category to boast leadership.

So how about background checks for everyone who buys, receives as a gift or inherits a legal lethal weapon? This, I say without addressing any other gun issue... and there are others.

Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I wish mental health care was as easy to get as, say, a gun.

PS: This is the 4th time in almost 400 blog posts that I have used this Starfish Story. It is a story I/we should live by. Everything starts with one.