I am saddened.

A National Park Ranger lost her life on New Years Day at Mt. Rainier because some half wit with a gun lost contact with the real world, where we humans dwell.

A husband has lost his life’s love.

Two little girls lost their mother.

Why?

Because some moron politician thought it would be a good idea to allow loaded weapons into our National Parks.  And some attorney felt that our right to be packin’ heat was being infringed on where we needed firearms on a day hike.  Lord knows I feel vulnerable when I see a marmot on the trail and I don’t have a fucking Mac 10 handy to blast it into oblivion.

The ranger was trying to stop this Neanderthal to tell him to chain his vehicle up.  Really, folks?  This required gunfire?  She was trying to keep this idiot from sliding off the road and killing himself.  She was thinking only of his welfare.

They think they have found this jerks body.

Good.  This needs to be over.

Two families need to mourn being torn asunder by the idiocy of this one individual.

We need to take note of how off-track society can be from what is “right” for the public welfare.  Too often, the public will relinquish responsibility for  the ramifications of the impacts of decisions like this.  Using “…this one instance…” or “…special circumstances…” as a means to explain away occurrences like this are not acceptable, and should not be…ever.  I liken it to the early discussion of the “Star Wars” missile defense system.  At best, the design for this protective shield for our country would yield 99% efficiency – meaning that, out of 100 nuclear missiles launched at us, one would get through.  And that was – and is – simply not acceptable.

In this sad case, the people who put this rule into effect for our National Parks system need to be held fully accountable.  Would a law keeping guns out of the parks have prevented this?  Probably not.  And then there is the old argument that “guns don’t kill people – people kill people” that really demonstrates a complete disconnection with accountability for one’s actions.  This idiot’s actions cost this Ranger her life.  Murder is murder, no matter how you look at it.

We will never know everything about what happened.  We are just left with…

Why?

(Thanks for letting me vent…)