This country's fuse is a short one. In addition to all of the usual alcohol and explosions over the holiday weekend, there was a rash of gun violence. In Chicago alone, 14 people were killed. I just now found a site called Gun Violence Archive, which is a nonprofit that keeps track of all U.S. gun violence. A New York Post article states that at least 150 people were shot to death nationwide this weekend. A least one commentator on the GVA site maintains that our country has a mental health/anger problem, which I totally agree with. Of course, the commentator was approaching the discourse from a "don't take our guns away" angle, which seems a bit at odds with his comment. So, do we just let all of the mentally ill, angry people keep their guns? Sure, the question simplifies a somewhat complex issue, but it does illustrate the problem. Something needs to be done. I would be happy if all guns disappeared tomorrow, but I know that's not going to happen. I'm also fine with responsible gun owners keeping their guns, but the big question is, how do we keep them out of the hands of the mentally ill, angry people? I'm willing to bet that most gun owners would object to regular mental health checkups and anger management courses. This is where I would say tough shit. With great power comes great responsibility and all of that. I would like to see some data about what percentage of people who commit gun violence are so-called "responsible gun owners".
I didn't start out to write about gun violence, but my stream of thought has many side channels, not to mention eddies. I was actually going to write about the headless baby opossum I found in the driveway earlier. I got home from looking for (and finding) an American Dipper, and found the poor 'possum sprawled headlessly on the concrete. From the look of the neck, it looked like some animal had chewed through it. Jeanine said she'd been out front a mere five minutes before and hadn't noticed it, which is weird. I'm guessing that it was there all along though, since opossums are nocturnal. Who knows though? It's probably the baby we've been seeing in the backyard lately, although there may be more than one. We'll have to keep an eye out.
Oh, and here's the Dipper.
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