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Home / World

Barry Soper: Trump offering only condolences no help in stopping the next US mass shooting

Barry Soper
By Barry Soper
Newstalk ZB's senior political correspondent·Newstalk ZB·
3 Oct, 2017 04:00 PM3 mins to read

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59 people are dead and 527 injured after a gunman opened fire at a crowd of country music fans on the Las Vegas strip
Barry Soper
Opinion by Barry Soper
Barry Soper is Newstalk ZB's senior political correspondent
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Donald Trump's like the Godfather presiding over the foot soldiers who're collecting protection money from those who insist it's their right to bear arms.

The Don promised the country last year he'd uphold the Second Amendment come what may, which says "a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

There's nothing free in a state of living in fear of being shot.

Think back to the 9/11 terrorist attack and the outrage of the American people, and the world, and the changes implemented virtually overnight as the White House responded in the wake of the almost three thousand deaths. Compare that reaction to the almost twelve thousand people who have been shot dead so far this year in the United States, a country where there are more firearms in circulation than there are cell phones.

These firearms aren't for hunting, if they were it doesn't say much for the skill of the marksman. Would a hunter want to rip his prey to shreds with an automatic rifle? The answer's obvious, these guns are for killing people and the concertgoers in Las Vegas are the latest casualties in yet another American battlefield, although that's too kind a description. On a battlefield you usually have a fighting chance, these innocent people were simply out to have a good time and were gunned down, not knowing where the rapid-fire bullets were being sprayed from.

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The Don tweeted his "warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting."

Chances of any gun control remain out of the question though. The National Rifleman's Association gave its biggest ever donation to the Trump Presidential campaign last year, more than $30 million. Given its five million members cough up $200 million a year in membership dues, it was a drop in the bucket.

It means they've got heaps of protection money left to spend on getting political foot soldiers re-elected, the Senators and Congressmen, who send their "sincere" condolences out to those who have their lives wrecked by gun-toting madmen, but who are loathe to do anything about changing the Second Amendment.

We'll no doubt hear the same outpourings at the next mass shooting, there'll be another one, you can count on it.

In this country Fred Dagg got it right: We don't know how lucky we are.

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