There is a Twitter account I follow called “Well Regulated Militia” that records the toll of gun deaths in this country. The feed reads like this:

A member of our well-regulated militia uses a gun to murder his wife and her mother, then uses the gun to kill himself. He had a history of multiple domestic violence incidents against his wife, including threatening her with a gun. (April 13. Kingsport, TN)

A member of our well-regulated militia pulls a gun on his brother. The brother wrestles the gun from him, and one of them fires the gun during the struggle. The brother who pulled the gun is shot in the abdomen. (April 16, Natchez, NM)

A member of our well-regulated militia is having sex with his girlfriend when he finds a gun he hid in the couch. He tries to move it because she’d already asked him not to have guns around her. He shoots and kills her as they fight about the gun. (April 19, W. Palm Beach, FL)

A member of our well-regulated militia arms himself to walk his dog. Another dog breaks free from his harness and runs in circles around him, so he shoots the dog in the head as his owners (including a 10-year-old girl) watch. (April 15, Aurora, IL)

A member of our well-regulated militia uses a gun to murder his wife and to kill himself. One of the couple’s four children had called the police, saying she heard her dad threatening to shoot her mom. (April 14, Athens, GA)

A member of our well-regulated militia allows a 14-year-old boy access to a gun. The boy shoots and kills his 10-year-old brother. Police arrest the boy and charge him with involuntary manslaughter; no word on charges for the gun owner. (April 13, Henderson NV)

This is all recent. I saved a few favorites from last year, including the guy who killed his childhood friend when he saw him walking on his property. Thought he was an intruder. Or the woman who blew her husband away with a shotgun as he was letting himself in through the back door of his house.

So after years of reading these reports that include episodes of manly men shooting off their own genitals as they keep their guns in their waistbands, my reaction is usually one of laughter.

I know one should feel sadness and remorse about these tragedies, but why? This is the country you wanted, and now you have it. At this point, the self-inflicted stupidity is so routine, it’s like watching sketch comedy.

More entertaining still is watching the way you allow yourselves to get manipulated.

What a sight it is to see Nassau County “Democratic” candidates joining the Trumpist GOP, leveraging your fragility over a non-issue like bail reform, posing themselves as ”moderates,” while the Republicans get a free pass to allow weapons and firepower to be distributed like Snickers bars. In other words, the GOP creates the problems, and then blames the “weak liberals” for the inevitable outcome of mass slaughter.

How cool is that? Few political constructs have worked so well in this country. Even the police buy into it.

So let Nassau “Democrats” grovel and apologize for an issue they didn’t create. Leveraging fear sells. They’re in on the farce, too, just to get the votes of those “sensible” people who can tolerate “reasonable“ levels of mass incarceration for the sake of their feelings of self-comfort.

In any case, I keep following this account for the laughs. Here’s another recent one:

A member of our well-regulated militia allows a 6-year-old boy access to a loaded gun. The boy shoots himself and does not survive. (Fort Collins, TX) “The County Coroner’s Office has ruled that the Fort Collins boy died by accident.”

An “accident.” Now THAT is funny.

Donald Davret

Roslyn