Since 2000. 100,000 have been killed.

My niece took her son to a Cavs basketball game two years ago. They parked in an expensive lot across from the arena. In front of their eyes they say a man park in a handicapped spot and an armed lot attendant stopped him at the lot exit and told him to move the car or it would be towed. The man went to his trunk and took out a handgun and shot the attendant to death. This was in front of my niece and her young son. They just wanted to see LeBron James and the Cavs play. They hid in their car until the police came. To make a long story short she had to testify at trial because the killer was quite rich and claimed self-defense.

Yesterday a man entered a packed movie theater and killed or wounded over 70 people with the help of a semi-automatic weapon with a clip that held 100 bullets. The President and his challenger said nothing about our gun laws and said we should all pray for the fallen and injured. I read a comment on face book that asked all users not to mention politics on a day of sadness such as this. The NRA web page said nothing.

I must admit that I am not anti-guns. I was trained as a boy scout to shot at the local hunt club. I shot two years for medals. I was trained to shoot in the military. I own a Jennings semi-automatic hand gun for home protection. It has a clip for 8 bullets. I also own a 20 gauge pump shotgun for home protection. Both guns have safety locks and have never been shot. Both guns have never left my home. I believe in the right of Americans to protect their homes and property. I do not believe in the new concealed and carry laws and would never carry a gun in public.

Having said all this I would like to condemn both President Obama and Mitt Romney for their fear of the NRA and their supporters. This is the time to speak up and to yell  from the highest mountain top. GUNS KILL PEOPLE!  We have no need for military style attack weapons need stringent gun laws to stop the production and sale of these weapons.

In the U.S. you are 40 times more likely to be killed by a gun than in Canada or England.  If the United States had the same gun murder rate as England or Canada, approximately 8,500 American men, women and children who were killed by gunfire in 2011 might still be alive today. If the United States had the same gun murder rate as England since 2000, 100,000 murdered American men, women and children might still be alive today.

Of course, it is not only the NRA and its supporters who are accountable for this state of affairs. It is also our elected representatives in Congress who have lacked the common sense and courage to renew the federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. This is, by any reasonable measure, a failure of them as leaders of our country...

In the face of this national tragedy, President Obama says this is not the time for politics but for prayer. But this is the time for politics, before we do what we always do after such massacres -- shed some tears, express our grief, say a few prayers, and then quickly go on to do what the NRA wants us to do -- change the subject. I am sorry but I refuse to follow the script and want to scream as loud as I can,” Stop this insanity "