If You See Something, SAY Something

We've heard this said and read the signs posted in the airports.  But it might also be helpful in this application:  have you noticed that after a horrendous attack by a deranged gunman, people - fellow office workers, distant relatives, acquaintances of the gunman (so far it's only men doing the shooting) come out of the woodwork telling how anti-social/bigoted/nasty, etc. he was?

It would be a great deal wiser for these people to quietly let authorities know that there is something wrong - very wrong - to see in the behaviors of the gunman.  And they know.  Believe me they know.  When the Thanksgiving dinner table conversation is dominated by a wing nut who wants to "take out" all of the (fill in object of hatred) that's a clue. Ya think?

Why isn't there some kind of mental test a wanna be gun buyer has to take?  A letter attesting to their mental soundness from a physician?  Because anyone can fake a  letter and anyone can buy their way out of an exam. 

But, conversely, why can't a gun dealer who has a customer, clad head to toe in cammies, ranting about Jews or "niggers" or whatever wanting to buy a AK47 at least be civic minded enough to delay the customer "with paperwork" or "waiting period" and call the police after they've left the store?  Answer - "It's all coin in the pocket, baby." 

Gun laws?  Please.  Chicago has what are said to be the toughest gun laws in the nation.  As of June 1st something like a thousand people had been killed with a gun since January, 2016.

I wish there was a way to make killing someone with a broom chic.  Maybe videos by hip hop or movie stars?

To cheer myself on a gray day with dismal thoughts of the futility of trying to stop mass killings, I Googled Christos, the artist, and went to look at his draped art exhibits.  The bridge in Paris, the umbrellas near Bakersfield and the corresponding city in Japan; his current project, a bridge on a lake in Italy.  Strangely soothing ... a familiar object becomes unfamiliar merely by wrapping it ... As a sort of non-harmful Valium, I recommend it.