Commentary: Gabrielle Giffords' departure from Congress is a blow to democracy

[babylonsister]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/01/31/137315/commentary-gabrielle-giffords.html?storylink=MI_emailed

Commentary: Gabrielle Giffords' departure from Congress is a blow to democracy

By Leonard Pitts Jr. | The Miami Herald


In a democracy, nothing is supposed to matter more than the will of the people.

So it was painful to watch last week as the will of the people was overturned and one of Arizona's duly elected representatives was forced from office. It wasn't a recall vote or scandal that did it. No, the people's will was overturned by a gun.

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At the very least, we need to have a serious national dialogue about these and other possible solutions.

But we won’t. Too many on the political left still seem to harbor a fantasy of getting rid of all guns and refuse to distinguish between responsible gun owners and those criminals or deranged people who have no business with firearms. Too many on the political right still harbor the paranoid delusion that any talk of gun control is code for confiscation by jackbooted thugs riding black helicopters.

So nobody talks. Nobody listens. Meantime, our unwillingness to get serious about an epidemic of gun violence brings us the equivalent of 11 Columbine massacres every week — three 9/11s every year. Every once in awhile, as now, it even overturns an election. The carnage goes on, and on.

And sadly, that, too, reflects the people’s will.