Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

     They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
   This past Saturday there was in this country yet another incident of senseless gun violence committed by yet another mentally deranged shooter, a man who in spite of his  violent past had no more problem procuring a gun than would a police officer.
   This time death hit Westerville, Ohio, a pleasant, normally peaceful suburb of Columbus, the next suburb over from my suburb. This time the shooter was was an ex-felon who nonetheless had no problem procuring a gun; it was as easy as giving the money to a friend who got the gun from one of the hundreds, thousands, who-even-knows-how-many gun-getting places that keep this country awash in guns and death by gunshot wounds.
       Old story, tragic new chapter.
     This time the victims were two police officers who were answering a call for help from a frightened woman who'd called the police several times in the past on her abusive husband.

     Anthony Morelli and Eric Joering were good officers, good men, husbands, fathers, active members of their community, men whose families  could have been my neighbors.

     Surely when Officers Morelli and Joering said good-bye to their wives and children as they left for work last Saturday morning their families never imagined that this would be their last good-bye.    
    And it shouldn't have been. 
    Call it a mental illness problem, a domestic violence problem, or an ex-felon problem, the problem is that if one mentally ill ex-felon spouse abuser hadn't had been in possession of gun two police officers would still be alive today. Take note, all gun-rights supporters who believe that arming every man, woman, and child in this country is the answer to gun deaths, that the two officers who died were armed and trained in the use of firearms.

      And now there are two wives who've lost husbands, two families who've lost fathers, a community steeped in shock and grief,

...while our lawmakers in Congress continue to rest comfortably and silently in the deep, deep pockets of the National Rifle Association with their fervent conviction  that all persons are created equal in their right enrich gun manufacturers and their lobbyists.

    This time I expect there'll be the standard-issue outpourings from politicians of thoughts and prayers for the fallen officers and their families but, as usual, no legislative action on putting an end to the firearms free-for-all that reigns in our country from sea shining sea.
     And here I am writing another lacrimosa on another gun violence tragedy.
     For what, I wonder?

References
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180211/grief-love-and-memories-westerville-honors-fallen-officers

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ohio-police-killings-suspect-illegally-had-gun-records-show/ar-BBJ0vt6?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=UP97DHP

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/10/us/ohio-police-officers-killed/index.html