First Think, THEN Ink.

So, we've had a couple of mass killings here in the United States in the past seven days. It's probably more than a couple, if we're being accurate. Because there are mass killings that don't make the national news. But I'm going to focus on the two that became globally known.

The first of the two major stories was the New York City truck massacre on Halloween, when a radicalized terrorist drove his rented vehicle on a bike path in lower Manhattan, not far from the World Trade Center site. He killed eight people, five from Argentina, one from Belgium and two Americans, and injured several others.

I think most New Yorkers have either biked or walked on this particular path at some time. It's right by the Hudson River, which makes it rather scenic and it's just a great way to get north or south on the West Side. I mean, it's a path designed for pedestrians and bikes. You want to be there, specifically because there is no motorized traffic.

The thing about this attack was that most people who would have been out having some leisure time on a Tuesday afternoon were bound to be tourists. But this guy assumed that Halloween was a "holiday" so there would be more people taking the day off. And really, most people who are tourists are visiting New York from other countries. I sometimes have to skirt the fringes of Times Square in my travels around town and aside from the workers on the side walk, trying to coerce people to hop on one of those double decker sightseeeing buses, it's difficult to overhear any English being spoken in that part of the city at all. That's especially true after summer ends and everyone is back in school.

So, if this guy had intended to attack the United States, he really didn't know what he was doing.

The second occurred this past Sunday, and featured a dude in military camos entering a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and shooting the place up, before fleeing but then being shot and killed.

Already the same continued remarks began. The guy broke the law to get his guns. So no new law would have prevented him from doing what he did.

But that's a misunderstanding about what laws are supposed to do. As a society, we agree to make laws that help protect us and make our quality of life safer and better. Laws cannot stop people from breaking those laws, but they can make it a lot more difficult for people who want to do those questionable things to achieve their goals.

The problem is in first, just agreeing that we need to enact some legislation. The National Rifle Association, or NRA, has a powerful lobby in Washington and they send favors, treats and other sundries to members of the House and Senate to "help them decide" what direction they want to go when it comes to these issues. This makes it very difficult to accomplish anything when it comes to the elements of gun control.

And if we never even get to talk about the issue, there is no way it can ever be resolved, and there will be the next deadly massacre, at whatever date in the future, at whatever location that it happens. We already know there will be a "next massacre." It's both tragic and shameful that some more people will have to pay with their lives because we did nothing to prevent it.

You might have heard, yesterday, another troubled member of our society, down in Fort Hood, Texas decided to shoot the place up and managed to hit sixteen people, killing four, including himself.

I'm finally coming to terms with what should have been an obvious truth. There is going to be no gun control legislation in the United States. EVER. People are perfectly fine with the occasional massacre by someone who has some personal or mental problems and decides to take it out on a bunch of random people with some sort of rifle, pistol, assault weapon. Mostly, Congress is fine with it. But the population at large seems pretty okay with it as well. That's likely because it's not happening where most people happen to be. Littleton, CO. Newtown, CT. Have you been to Fort Hood? Neither have I, especially since the previous mass shooting there in 2009.

Of course, I live in a place where people are getting shot on a fairly regular basis, just usually not massacre style. So, I'm still pretty concerned.

( There's such a zest, an almost religious fervor... )