A Particularly Sad Side Note On The Assassination of Shinzo Abe

While my clock radio was urging me to start my day yesterday, the news about the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came on.

The reporter was in Japan and part of the opening statement (and I paraphrase since I was half asleep) was:

Unlike the United States, this is highly unusual in Japan.

‘Unlike the United States’: truer words weren’t available.

‘Unlike the United States’: where street violence is just a common everyday occurrence.

‘Unlike the United States’: where gun violence is just a common everyday occurrence.

‘Unlike the United States’: where presidents and other elected officials are routinely shot at.

‘Unlike the United States’: where we need to employ the Secret Service to protect presidents and on occasion other elected officials.

At this point, every single day that the United States remains unlike other countries that have rational and effective gun control policies, the members of Congress should be held criminally negligent for every gun inflicted death in the nation.