Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Who Deserves the Death Penalty? I think We Know!


Well, here we go again. Another idiot monster—this time in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado—has killed a bunch of innocent people—men, women and children—who were only trying to enjoy themselves with friends and loved ones.  Many of the people who were gunned down showed admirable courage, shielding others with their bodies, sacrificing their lives to save others. I am in awe of such people and hope that their lives will be celebrated.  These heroes deserve to be remembered.  Ironically, I suspect that the murderer who savagely killed these innocents wanted to be remembered for something. He will be. We can try to understand his horrendous acts and motivations, but I propose that it cannot be understood by good and moral people. The truth is that only one person deserved to die in that theater that night. 

And here we go again pointing fingers. Regrettably, it did not take long for the gun control people out there to start clamoring for tighter restrictions on firearms. It has been argued that guns don't kill people, people kill be people. Evil people murder people, by what ever method they choose to do it. It should be remembered that roughly a year ago, a Norwegian looney murdered over 70 people on an island retreat in Norway. Norway, by the way, has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world. In fact, many more murders—more than four-times as many—happen in states and cities in the US where strict gun laws are in force than in areas where gun laws are less stringent.  Where conceal-carry laws exist, violent crimes involving guns are much fewer.

I cannot help but wonder how many people could have been saved if everyone in the theater had been “packing heat”.  I guarantee you that if I had been there, or my brothers, or my gun-toting children had been in the audience we could have stopped the idiot with several bullets to his face. Of course, if the little coward had suspected that some of the theater audience was armed, as might be the case in a town where conceal-carry is the law, he would undoubtedly taken performance art elsewhere.  Only cowards do such things, brutally murdering the defenseless.  I cannot think of a time when a mass murder took place at a police station. Please do not mention the crazies in the Muslim world who blow up car bombs and themselves at police stations. Those COWARDS are in another category and I believe it is illegal for them to possess explosives in their respective countries. What if all the passengers on the doomed flights on 9--11 had had box-cutters? I'm confident that the three planes where the passengers did not fight back would never have gotten to to the terrorist's targets. If anything, we as Americans need to go further in protecting ourselves from the evil that is out there.

And here I go again. I also want to say it should be clear that the death penalty is more than appropriate for this human waste. He condemned 12 innocents to death and should get the same. It is lamentable that he can only be put to death once. Many will say that the death penalty is not a deterrent to capital crime, but though it can be argued that it definitely deters the murderer from ever committing murder again, in my mind deterrence is not the only compelling reason for it. The murderer, who takes an innocent life without compunction or for the thrill of it or some sort of self-aggrandizement, is not worthy of life among other human beings, in or out of a prison. We in society should not have to care for, and feed and clothe them, or keep them safe from other prison populations. Many in society refuse to acknowledge the humanity of the unborn among us and willing standby as millions of abortions—the death penalty of the unwanted—are performed every year, but blanch at the thought of ending the life of someone who has ceased to be human in their treatment of their fellow man. The Aurora mass-murderer gave up his membership in the human club when he decided to act on an inhuman impulse. He probably wanted to be somebody. I hope that he will soon leave his body.

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