DAVE ROSS

Ross: How, sadly, one side of the gun debate is gaining supporters

Nov 9, 2018, 6:45 AM

shooting, gun debate...

People gather to pray for the victims of a mass shooting during a candlelight vigil in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

(AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Watching the news last night with my wife, seeing the families of the people killed during a dance — infuriating.

The other news – Jeff Sessions, Robert Mueller, Trump, Trump, and more Trump – felt so stupid next to the grief of that father who lost his son. You could feel his soul cracking.

And the officer who was killed when he went running into the gunfire. These are everybody’s neighbors. I recognize them even though I don’t know them.

It’s tragic when people die in accidents and natural disasters. But the thing about a mass shooting is that it’s intentional, and we make it too easy.

What does it matter that we have the greatest economy or the greatest military if you can’t feel secure going to a dance?

And yet the circumstances seemed designed to confound those of us who keep thinking there has to be a way to prevent this. The shooter was a Marine. A man who had measured up, who took the oath, who deployed, and then who snapped. California has a law to deal with people who snap, but it wasn’t invoked.

I see no point in another gun debate. But someday, sadly, there will be enough aggrieved families to form an impenetrable human chain around the Capitol. I hope it shows up while Congress is in session and I hope they block the members from leaving until they realize that the real threat to national security is not from the outside.

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Ross: How, sadly, one side of the gun debate is gaining supporters