Washington Navy Yard Shooting

There has been another large scale shooting, this time at the Washington Navy Yard.  A number of people I know well work there, to include my brother.  I guess I am fortunate in some strange, eerie way that no one I know was injured, though that hardly feels like the right word.  But others are not so fortunate.  And with 12 dead there are scores of families - the immediate families and their relatives and friends - who now are suffering.  

There is little to say about this that is good.  And that is why I am particularly incensed with the comment made by some politician praising the DC police who responded 'quickly and efficiently,' or some such thing.  They responded in time to find 12 people dead.  And what is particularly frustrating is that this shooting took place on a Navy base, pieces of terrain in the US that have probably the lowest number of firearms per square foot or per capita of any in this nation.

Once again we are shown that the police, no matter how hard they try, do not get there in time if an evil SOB wants to kill people.  Washington DC is, despite the comical efforts of the Supreme Court, still a city effectively devoid of any legal firearms, and US military facilities are, if anything, even less tolerant of weapons.  And so, no one is able to protect themselves if a gunman comes onto the base.

I am sure we will now go through a host of security gyrations, with more spot checks, and more security at the front gates of bases.  Politicians will pontificate.  But the simple facts remain: 12 people are dead.  No law would have prevented this man from getting a weapon. The people inside were not able, and will not be allowed in the future, to defend themselves.  The police will not be able to respond in time to stop someone who is armed.