Tragedy brings change?

Many times in our society, change only comes after a tragedy that shakes the populace in a way that most tragedies don't.

A couple of examples:

Fire codes were unheard of until 147 were killed at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City in 1911. Main cause of the deaths was the lack of sufficient exiting and what exits that were available were locked during working hours.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpim3.htm

Nearly 500 people died in a fire at the Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston MA on November 28, 1942. The club was designed to accommodate around 500 patrons. The night of the fire, there were around 1000 patrons inside the club. When the fire broke out and became serious, the crush of panicked people trying to get to the limited exits.

http://bostinno.com/2012/10/31/boston-public-library-cocoanut-grove-nightclub-fire-anniversary/#ss__252416_1_0__ss


These fire tragedies and others over the years, have been the catalyst for new fire codes, exiting requirements, fire sprinklers and limiting flammable building/decorative materials used in public buildings.

Bottom line: People have to die for change to be undertaken.

Now we have another tragic shooting in a string of shooting incidents that have become common across the U.S. Shootings by enraged or mentally unstable people are not uncommon, and are almost becoming a monthly event in America. This shooting however, involved the most innocent. Children at an elementary school.

Shootings of politicians and her constituents (Gabby Gifford's incident) didn't bring change.

Mass assault by disturbed high school students against their fellow high school students didn't bring change at Columbine HS in Colorado.

Virginia Tech university was the scene of another mass shooting

A theatre shooting by a mentally disturbed person didn't bring change.

Those deaths of innocent people ranging from high school age to university age to the various ages of theatre and mall goers didn't ring the bell that this recent shooting has.

Sadly it took the mass shooting of elementary school children to make the public sit up and take notice, and start clamoring for some sort of control on assault weapons, high ammo clips and automatic firing weapons.

The time has come for some sort of gun control against the weapons of mass killing. These weapons are not "sport" guns used for hunting or simple target practice. These weapons are military grade killing tools for use on the battle field.

When people counter gun control laws with the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" line or that "we should outlaw cars too, because they kill people", the response should be that cars are must be considered STREET LEGAL and meet certain standards before they are allowed on public roads..............we have controls on drugs, we have controls on food inspection, we have driving laws and even who can drive. It's time to put some controls on guns that are only made for massive killing intent.

The time has come and it's time for congress to act.