As the Washington warhawks took to the Sunday talk shows to beat the drums for an attack on Syria, we will play some of the interview Charlie Rose conducted with Syrian President Bashar Assad. It gives a frightening new perspective on our prospective unilateral military action. Why do they hate us again? That's right ...
We will also take a look at our continued domestic use of weapons, specifically our ongoing love affair with deadly handguns. There have been some recent gun tragedies that have been under-reported or eclipsed by other news stories, perhaps because we have come to accept such violence as part of everyday American life. It doesn't have to be this way.
Yellowstone Park saw it's first firearm fatality in decades, an alleged self-inflicted wound ... by a three-year-old girl. The LA Times Reports:
"The National Park Service is investigating the fatal shooting of a 3-year-old Idaho girl at a Yellowstone National Park campground, officials said Sunday. The child's mother told emergency dispatchers that her daughter shot herself with a handgun, park officials said in a statement.
"Carrying guns in national parks and federal wildlife areas is permitted as long as federal, state and local laws are obeyed. That policy came about because of the 2009 credit card reform bill, to which Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) offered the gun provision as an amendment. The Senate passed the bill, 90 to 5. The measure also passed the House, and President Obama signed it. The law took effect in February 2010."
Guns in national parks -- why not? You can carry them into churches in many states now. And bars. And pretty much any public or private location in Arizona. I wonder if Coburn will offer any comment on the tragedy he helped create.
A high school track star was shot in Colorado by an avid gun enthusiast (according to his Facebook page) over the weekend as well. Seems the girl was trying to surprise her buddy by jumping out of a closet to prank him, but was fatally shot instead.
"After jumping out of a closet where she had been hiding in order to startle her friend, high school track star Premila Lal, 18, was shot and killed Friday night by 21-year-old Nerrek Daniel Galley in Longmont, Colorado." GAWKER reports.
"'The closet opened and I think she jumped and screamed, and he thought it was an intruder inside the closet, so that's when he pulled the trigger,' Lal's father Praveen Lal told CBS Denver.
"After the shooting, Galley and Lal's brother, 15, and cousin, 12, carried her to the car and drove her to the hospital where she died shortly after arriving. Galley was subsequently arrested for 'actions unrelated to the shooting,' including suspected child abuse, reckless endangerment, and permitting a juvenile to have a firearm."
Kids with guns. Remember the five-year-old who shot his two-year-old sister in Kentucky back in May, with his cute little personal rifle by the Crickett rifle company? They specialize in making toddler-sized working weapons for the pull-up sector.
Is this the best future for our children? After the myriad of gun tragedies that have taken the lives of hundreds of our kids in recent years, when do we say enough?
In related news, seems there were lots of people murdered with guns around America over the weekend. Mostly adults. Here are some of the headlines:
Two killed, several others wounded in weekend shootings in BaltimoreWoman killed, 2 hurt in shooting at Antioch Skating rink
San Antonio officer injured in shooting at motel north of downtown
