On deadly selfishness

I can't add much to the conversation about the massacre in Connecticut, but I've a couple of thoughts about the gun control issue.

First off, it seems obvious that we need to do something to restrict the ability of lunatics to kill people in mass quantities.  Someone suggested that instead of talking about gun control, we need to focus on massacre control.  Things like banning 30 round magazines, and assault rifles, and Teflon-coated bullets, that kind of thing.

Gun ownership in America is, as I understand it, founded on two basic ideas.  One, that hunting is legal, and for some people even necessary, and therefore weapons suitable for hunting should be allowed.  I agree with this.

Two, it is necessary for the populace to be armed in order to prevent a tyrannical government from trampling citizens and enslaving them.  Well, that was important in the revolutionary period, and I think it is a reasonable idea even now, though it seems pretty far fetched.

For point one, it is obvious that you don't need a 30 round clip for a pistol.  Nothing you hunt needs that.  And you don't need an assault weapon for hunting.  The normal rifle is just fine for hunting.

Now I suppose that if you're arming yourself for an armed insurrection then you might need assault weapons and extremely deadly pistols and bullets, but do we really think we ought to let our population gear up for an armed insurrection?  Really?  Isn't it enough to have a populace armed with normal rifles and pistols?  As far as I know, there were no 30 round magazines or assault rifles in the revolutionary war period.

I hear gun nuts say stuff like, "yeah the massacre was horrible, but why blame people who didn't do it and take away their guns."  In other words, lip service tothe tragedy, to the suffering of the victims and their families, then an immediate pivot to me me me me.  Don't even think about something that might affect me me me me.  I didn't do it.  I should get to own all the firepower I want, and be as irresponsible with it as I please.  It's all about me me me me.  Don't make me me me suffer.  I want to contribute NOTHING to a safer society.  There IS NO REASONABLE RESTRICTION if it affects me me me me.

Selfish jerks.

Update:  Oh, and I think the blood of those murdered children is on Wayne LaPierre's hands.