Just more excuses

Another 31 people dead from gun violence over the first weekend of August, an ever increasingly common event. The El Paso shooter posted his racism with remarks that parroted what the president says on a regular basis. Immigrants are part of an invasion, they are criminals and drug runners. He came to El Paso, armed with an assault weapon and killed 22 people who were buying back-to-school supplies. Another nine died in Dayton, Ohio, the following day. Same weapon, different shooter, same result.

Now we hear the same tired and lame excuses. Mental illness seems to be the popular excuse. If that was the case in the Freeman shooter, he would not be tried as an adult as the judge has ruled. But it is never the gun. Couldn’t be the assault weapon which killed the nine in Dayton in less than a minute.

Will Congress make any attempt at reducing the carnage? Not if they follow the dictate of the NRA, as most of the Republican legislators do, including McMorris Rodgers. We can look forward to the next mass murder and hope it is not us or our friends and relatives whom we have to bury.

Allen Roberts

St. John, Wash.