$ 73,000,000 Settlement

 

   Seventy-three million dollars is the settlement awarded to nine families, some of the 27 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.  The amount was charged to the manufacturer and distributer of the Bushmaster AR-15 style assault rifle supplier, Remington.  Good news?  Be careful what you wish for.  None of the executives of the company that supplies this weapon are going to Heaven, but they supply a legal product in a legal manner to the American public.  There is no legal justification of their punishment.  They are not the bad guys.  The folks that approve the distribution of this human killing device to the general public are your elected representatives.  Not the judicial branch of government.  Their job is simply to determine if a law has been broken.  The mother of the lunatic that committed the mass murder acquired the murder weapon legally.  Remington broke no laws.  Sorry lovers of justice.

   In the long run, subverting the law is not a good decision.  Think of the recent act of Republican senators not willing to hear witnesses or view documents in an impeachment trial.  The Constitution (the law) called for them to be unbiased jurors.   One could not be an unbiased judge of anything without hearing witness testimony or viewing relevant documents.  So, the thinking, but with little or no moral rudder, Republican senators were saying, “We know he is a lunatic and a liar, but he is our lunatic and liar.”  You see they were wishing for a “good” outcome for their party, not to properly implement the law.  The law is not always right, but it should be the deciding factor in a court of law.

   So, what is the “proper application of an assault weapon?”  A battle field is the obvious answer.  Swat teams often experience “collateral damage” with their use.  Citizens often use them for mass murder.  What is the basic requirement of an assault weapon?  Rapid fire and it is a bonus for the imaginary killers if it looks mean.  So, a single shot weapon, even if it looked mean, would be relatively harmless.  It would be effective for suicide (40% of civilian gun deaths), because a well-executed suicide rarely requires a second shot.  Collectors don’t require rapid fire.  Target shooters don’t require rapid fire and hunters would be more skillful in tracking and shooting with only one shot.  With only one shot the home defender will kill less friends and relatives.  (This paragraph was obviously a plug for my “one shot” solution to mass murders.  It requires intelligent legislation.  We don’t see enough of that.  Legislation is primarily dollar driven.)

   We need not hope for bad judicial decisions to bring about desirable outcomes.  We need to demand thoughtful and just legislation from our legislators.  Political bickering and corporate bribery often get in the way of just legislation.  Can we build a truly great nation with political bickering and corporate bribery?  It has been hard.

Cheers, Old Buz     2/19/2022

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