I'm getting so sick of "reactionism" (I don't know if I just made up that word or not). The companies that sell automatic weapons are trying to make it out that they don't, and the companies that sold them are pulling them off the shelves. Does it change what happend Friday? No. Will it change events that will happen again? No.
I'm not trying to underplay what happend. It's a tragedy of epic proportion and I can relate all to well since I have a child the same age as the victims. Trust me, it is difficult to cope with the images that are going through my brain, I can't imagine nor I want to imagine what is going through theirs.
The reactions of the gun makers and sellers is what has be baffled. It's not like they were making lollipops and suddenly one day a rogue lollipop caused some horrible tragedy. These are guns. Automatic ones. Ones that should be in the hands of trained individuals and kept out of the hands of others. Now, I've never fired one of these rifles, but I've fired a couple semi-automatic handguns and non-automatic rifles. The ones I've fired, there was no mistaking the deadly force they are capable of. Now, Bushmaster (those who make them and those that sell them) is all the sudden ashamed of what they sell enough to pull them off the shelves. Not out of some sort of manufacturing defect safety recall, but out of concern of their image. That's reactionary and wrong. You make and sell a LEGAL product. I don't know that I'd ever buy one - I don't hunt nor do I feel the need to own an automatic weapon - a semi-automatic pistol seems to be all the protection I feel I'd need - but that's just my opinion. I personally feel that if you need to hunt at 800 rounds per minute, perhaps hunting isn't your sport - but again, that is just my opinion.
