Orlando

Another horror story.  Another fast and loose use of the words terror and terrorist.  Another knee jerk set of reactions around gun control from the politicos running for offices.  I think we saw the 'x-teenth' time the President offered his hopes and prayers for the victims and pledged that together we will persevere.

Law Enforcement struggles to explain how an individual on their watch list was able to legally acquire handguns and automatic weapons.  The LGBT community grieves for their brothers and wonders what this means to their greater cause of acceptance and equality.

The general public tweeted sympathy and changed their Facebook profile pictures to some rainbow variation as if that has any impact other than to satisfy their own sense of latent guilt.  The guilt that they didn't do anything tangible after Columbine, or Newton or Virginia Tech, and won't now either.

Harsh ?  Yes.  Heartless ? No.  It's heartless to react with feigned sadness about tragedy - repeated, horror-filled tragedies - and not do anything about it.  Without any foreknowledge, or crystal ball, this will happen again as all the pieces remain in place for it to happen again.  Lock your doors.

But what can we do here ?  How could we really create change  - how to move the US from the #1 position in the world as those most likely to die from gun violence.  How do we control gun distribution, and address the underlying mental health issues that cause individuals to go off of the deep end..?

We do it by electing those that pledge and commit to solve the problem. In your town, state or county. We do it by walking away from the NRA - it's a membership based organization for gods sake.  Gun sales have gone through the roof in the US in recent years.   While any of these horrific, terror-inspiring actions undoubtedly have multiple causes - there's isn't a magic pill to solve this - the common theme here is availability and ease of access to weaponary that belongs in the Marines, not in your house.

So do something about it - or look in the mirror and admit to yourself that you are part of the problem.