Aug 16, 2009 3 min read

In an event of supreme tragic irony and rank hypocrisy, the Pennsylvania State Senate observed a moment of silence in honor of the three fine young women who were gunned down by a madman on Aug.4, when he brought a cache of weapons into a Collier Township fitness center just four miles from my home. Additionally, Venango County Republican State Sen. Mary Jo White, who has consistently received an A-rating from the NRA for her pro-gun voting record, addressed about 400 mourners at the funeral for one of the slain women, Jody Billingsley.

Do members of the State Senate, prominently including Ms. White, not have blood on their hands for so much gun carnage that occurs in the commonwealth, given that most of them are puppets of the National Rifle Association, which foolishly believes that the more guns there are on our streets, the safer we all shall be?

They should ask the survivors of the slain women whether they agree, and whether they feel that more guns and easy access to guns made them any safer on the fateful night that destroyed their lives and changed them forever.

If more guns make us safer, can we count on Sen. White to float legislation to make the senate chamber a Second Amendment paradise, in which guns are permitted? Somehow, I suspect that such a bill is not in the offing!

If members of the state senate were honest, they would say to the families of those senselessly slaughtered, “we are sorry for your loss, but there will have to be myriad more deaths before we would ever consider bucking the NRA, which provides us with votes and financial support. Our political futures are simply more important than the lives of people whom we do not know. We will do nothing to keep guns out of the hands of lunatics, who shall enjoy the status quo.

“Everyone is assumed to be a responsible gun owner unless and until they pull the trigger on an innocent person, and they may obtain as many guns as they want, including rapid fire weapons designed to mow down human beings. They shall be subjected to no psychological testing, no inconvenience, and no waiting, because that is what the ‘well-regulated militia’ specified in the Second Amendment means to us.”

The sympathy of members of the state senate upon three more sensless gun deaths can only be considered to be crocodile tears. What a tragedy for civilization….

Oren M. Spiegler

Upper Saint Clair