Ready on the right . . .

The tragic shooting in Arizona this week brought a hue and cry over gun rights. Second amendment enthusiasts are defensive, assuming that there will be a resulting tide of public sentiment for some type of restrictions on gun ownership.

Rhetoric from the golden oldies vault has been digitally remastered and is available now at this toll free number 800 672 3888. Sounds better than ever.

Don't blame the gun. Blame the shooter. Guns don't kill people. People kill people.

Solid Gold. Number 1. Been on the charts longer than Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and produced far more hits.

But we miss the target.

The gun used in this horrific slaying will not be punished nor blamed. It is just a piece of metal (and plastic). The shooter will be blamed and he will be punished, as he should.

But that won't do anything for the six people who were killed, or the hundreds of Americans that have died in similar incidents in the recent past, nor will it do anything for the next group of victims of a shooting spree.

There might be fewer victims if there were fewer bullets. Instead of thirty one shots there might have been eleven in Arizona. That was the law of the land until 2004. A law with enormous loopholes, but the law nonetheless. The Automatic Weapons Ban limited magazines of semi-automatic weapons to a capacity of ten bullets. Again subject to enormous loopholes, but still, it was an impediment, which grew more effective as the years went on as the supply of pre-1994 high capacity magazines became more scarce and more expensive.

But that law left town before sundown, or actually right at sunset, in 2004, ten years after it was enacted, and has not been replaced by a conservative Republican Congress or a gutless Democratic Congress.

Blame, whether it is aimed at the gun or the shooter, is a weapon that will only fire blanks. It will save no one's life or limb, no one's child, spouse, parent, grandparent or friend.

But reasonable action might.

Nineteen people were shot. Do the math.

At least eight would not have been victims if only eleven shots had been available.

Is our right to be able to shoot twenty more bullets per minute worth the life of a nine year old child? Of a beloved husband and father? Of a promising young political aide? Of a retired grandmother? Which of the victims were not worth our consideration?

It's not about blame. It's about the right.

Not the Second Amendment Right, or the Poltical Right, or even being right.

It's about the right thing.

Doing it.

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