It is my hope Congressman Scalise (R-La) and the others who were wounded in the shooting in Alexandria fully recover from their wounds. Gun violence is the scourge of our nation and has now directly impacted a member of the Congress. It could be hoped this would get them to act.

But listening to Steve King (R-Iowa), one of the most right-wing venal members of the House, one has to wonder if anything rational can get done. According to the Washington Post “Rep. Steve King (Iowa) — was not present at the time of the shootings, but he traveled to the scene and spoke with reporters. King blamed “the left” for the shooting, even before authorities had released any details about the shooter or his political views. King said he saw the shooting as connected to the large protests that happened after President Trump’s election.”

He blames Americans who have demonstrated peacefully against the Republican efforts to hurt them by taking away their healthcare; and curtailing the rights of immigrants, minorities, women and the LGBTQ+ community. But then King is a racist. It was reported he recently doubled down on a racist tweet saying “I meant exactly what I said.” “King tweeted in support of his fellow anti-immigrant demagogue Geert Wilders (who is seeking to become the next Dutch prime minister), praising him as one who “understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” One of the only people to stand up for him was “former KKK leader, white supremacist, and former GOP Louisiana gubernatorial nominee David Duke who praised the tweet as proof that “sanity reigns supreme” in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District (which King represents).” This is the same Steve King who when he opposed Obamacare told people if it passed to “Riot if the bill passed.” Speaking of Washington D.C. he said “Fill this city up, fill this city, jam this place full so that they can’t get in, they can’t get out and they will have to capitulate to the will of the American people,” he said in a Huffington Post interview in 2010.

So I don’t hold out much hope that the words spoken by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to a meeting of the House of Representatives will have much impact on anything they do. He said “We are united in shock and anguish” adding “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us”. Well the attack on the children at Sandy Hook was an attack on all of us. The shooting of 49 innocents at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, one year ago this past Monday, was an attack on all of us. Still nothing happened. Ryan asked the house to “come together in humanity” but where is the humanity in what they are doing now, or when nothing changed after those and other shootings.

It appears the National Rifle Association’s fifty two million dollars they spent on lobbying last year still controls the minds and votes of nearly every Republican and even some Democratic members of Congress. It obviously robs them of any common sense. Because it is common sense that says we should not allow assault weapons used for war on our streets in America. Common sense that a person on a no-fly list because we think they are a terrorist should not be allowed to buy a gun. Common sense that those convicted of a violent crime should not be allowed to purchase a gun. But common sense is clearly lacking in our Congress.

Once again we will listen to the gnashing of teeth and see the crocodile tears of some of our leader’s crying into their milk. But then they will do nothing to change the spate of gun violence in our country. They will continue to be devoid of any common sense in their efforts to protect what they continue to misinterpret as the intention of the Congress in 1789 when they passed the second amendment to our constitution. The members of that Congress must be turning over in their graves at the stupidity of today’s congress who ascribe the owning of an assault weapon to the meaning of the second amendment.

So another shooting has occurred and thankfully this time it seems no one but the shooter died. But will it make a bit of difference that the target was members of Congress? I doubt it. Sad but true we will have to work harder to defeat all of those who serve there without a shred of common sense. Remember this in 2018 when we the people once again get the chance to speak out, vote, and make a real difference.