EARLIER I posted John's Story; now let me add some thoughts about Aaron Alexis and the Navy Yard shootings.

As we now know, Aaron Alexis was mentally ill; and as we see in
this video, he was not armed with an 'assault weapon' but with this shotgun, a conventional pump-action hunting weapon. The shotgun has a 4-shell fixed tubular magazine, meaning that Alexis had to reload it at least twice, which is not as simple as simply punching a button, dropping the empty magazine from the weapon and inserting a new fully-loaded magazine.

It's not about a deranged 'assault' weapon in the hands of a sane shooter. It's never about a deranged assault weapon; it's always about a deranged shooter with any weapon, 'assault' or otherwise. Yet when the mentally ill kill, we continue to blame the weapon, not the wielder. Will it never end?

It's time to address the real problem.