Shoot to Kill

A white supremacist gunman walks into a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, opens fire and kills six people. Another crazy, another mass killing.  College and high school campuses, postal buildings, movie theatres, places of worship. Armed and angry men -- it's always men-- shoot innocent people with weapons meant for war. Why can they buy them so readily in the United States?

I was in Wyoming on continuing education when a young man mowed down moviegoers in a Colorado movie house. A number of the participants in my course were from Colorado and everyone was shaken by this tragedy. Our morning chapel became a time of prayer for victims and families. No one prayed for gun reform. As the sole Canadian in the group I was surprisingly angry, although I didn't express it. Why this conspiracy of silence about the availablitiy of lethal weapons to just about anyone? President Obama and Mitt Romney went to Colorado to express condolences but neither said anything about gun control. And in the days after this massacre weapons sales spiked in that state.

We know that there are illegal guns available in Canada and that they are used to kill, but this is a different culture. There are times I feel as though I am from a different planet let alone another country., Wyoming is a state of rootin' tootin' shootin' cowboys and I can imagine the outcry if gun restrictions were proposed. It is so sad and innocent people continue to die.

Any thoughts?