JOE McGINNISS

IT’S NOT ONLY IN AMERICA

Crazed gunman kills at least 80 teenagers at summer camp on island near Oslo.

Why is a deranged person able to assemble his own arsenal, anywhere in the world?

I’ll leave it to the Norwegian government to answer that question in their own terms, after they bury their innocents.

But I’ll tell you why it happens in the USA: because our politicians are cowed by the gun lobby and the GOP, and any
crazy person who wants one can have himself or herself a gun almost overnight. And that’s legally.

Every time an innocent person is gunned down by a lunatic with a gun, spatters from the blood fall on the hands of U.S. political figures who blindly shout about “the right to bear arms,” as if this was 1776, not 2011.

Naming names? Who has been more outspoken about this than Sarah Palin?

Is she directly to blame for the catastrophe in Norway? Of course not. No more than she was directly to blame for the near-assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson.

But do she and her followers, who preach the virtues of private citizens owning firearms, have at least metaphorical blood on their hands every time a new madman shoots innocent people, whether children or adults?

You bet they do.

Will the Norwegian catastrophe change attitudes in the USA?

Might it move Sarah to say that maybe private citizens should not be allowed to build their own arsenals?

You bet it won’t.

Sure, people kill people. But crazed people armed with guns are killing more and more, every day, every month, every year.

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UPDATE:

As I write in the THE ROGUE, during Sarah’s first campaign for mayor of Wasilla, she was in favor of two things:  allowing Wasilla bars to stay open until 5 a.m., instead of closing at 2 a.m., and allowing concealed weapons to be carried in bars and banks and on school grounds.

During her first term as mayor, she signed an administrative order that permitted the open carrying of weapons in the town library and in city hall.

Just so it’s clear:  Sarah has been talking her gunslinger’s talk and walking her gunslinger’s walk right from the start.