Ban the NRA!

Yesterday, as you've no doubt heard by now, a gunman walked into the Washington Navy Yard and killed 12 people before being shot himself by D.C. police.

Setting aside the fact that the gunman was a self-proclaimed Buddhist (what kind of Buddhist does this, much less has a six-year record of gun-related brushes with the law?), we have to ask ourselves how this could happen.  The Washington Navy Yard is a military defense installation with armed guards, and  populated by no small number of well-trained and armed naval gunmen.  How could a single gunman cause so much death?

Did the gunman have near-supernatural, Matrix-like skills that allowed him to evade all those armed men?  I doubt it.  It just goes to show the asymmetrical advantage of a surprise ambush, even at a defense installation.

The NRA and gun-rights advocates still maintain that the solution to the epidemic of gun violence in America is more guns. Public schools, they maintain, could be made safe if we just allowed teachers and custodians to carry guns.

If a gunman can kill 12 people among all the security and arms and training at the Washington Navy Yard, if all of those guns and marksmen there couldn't prevent a dozen deaths, how an we expect Mr. Chips and Joe, the bucket guy, to defend our children?

It's time to wake up and start banning assault rifles, increasing background checks, and cracking down on gun runners.  And to ban the god-damned NRA.