MONDAY'S MASS SHOOTING @ THE WASHINGTON D.C. NAVY YARD.............

An ordinary Monday morning in Washington D.C., began yesterday with no hint of the senseless act of violence that would destroy the lives of twelve persons and devastate their families, colleagues, and our nation.  Yet again, the United States is inflicted by an act of mass murder - an action increasingly unusual to this country with a laxity of gun laws regarding thorough background checks for those persons in legal possession of firearms.  Monday's perpetrator, a 34 year old U.S. Navy reservist and independent contractor employee, discharged from active day in the Navy in 2011, had been treated for mental illness which included hearing voices in his head and was cited for misconduct while in the Navy eight times according to news reports.  Why then could he walk into a gun store over the weekend and purchase the rifle he used on Monday to wantonly massacre twelve other people ?  Weak, if not existent at all background checks, are much of the reason.  So are the National Rifle Association and other over zealous gun rights advocates whose influence over the Congress helped defeat a National Background Check Law in April, in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut; and Aurora, Colorado; mass killings last year.  How much longer will we ignore or obstruct doing more to prevent these tragically unnecessary deaths.  Countries with stricter laws limiting access and uniformly enforcing background checks in order to purchase assault weapons, including the United Kingdom and Australia, have very few mass shootings while the USA has contended with fifty or more during the past five years.  For those legitimately concerned with the Second Amendment Right  to Bear Arms in the U.S. Constitution, let us ask ourselves, did the Founding Fathers who authored and enacted our Constitution intend by the words THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS so as to maintain A WELL ORDERED MILITIA- the oblivious, unregulated, access to, and use of , weaponry they hardly envisioned ?  I do not think they did.  The ravages of mass shooting Americans are being caused to endure argues for redirecting our local, state, and national, consensus to more effectively eradicate such  violence in this the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.............Fr.  Troy David