In the days since the shootings which left three people dead in Colorado Springs, Colorado, we have learned that the man accused of the crime told police that his motive was based on his hatred of Planned Parenthood.
Yesterday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper also laid part of the blame for what was done by Robert Lewis Dear at the feet of the NRA and how incredibly easy it is for virtually anyone to get a gun:
“I mean, it’s a very, very hard reality to understand and get our arms around it. And, in Colorado, we passed universal background checks. But, at the same time, in Colorado Springs, it’s one of the more conservative parts of the state. We probably have more people that have licenses for concealed weapons, probably more guns around. That didn’t help.”
How true. A person as unstable as Dear was allowed to gain access to a semiautomatic rifle which he used to commit an act of domestic terrorism. Hickenlooper added:
“I think, as a state, but as a country, we have got a lot more thinking about this, of how to make sure we keep guns out of the hands of people that are unstable.”
Hickenlooper also noted:
“But I think we have to come back and look at all aspects of why these shootings have continued to occur, you know, in Oregon or South Carolina and Colorado. The frequency is unacceptable. And I don’t — you know, I’m not willing to say, well, we will just have to sit back and accept this as a cost of freedom.”
The governor also suggested an incredibly reasonable way of potentially solving the problem we face with guns in the United States:
“I think we have to really look at, how do we address — you know, how do we make sure that people have — who are unstable, who have violent histories, you know, if somehow — if a level of domestic violence made it much more difficult to get a weapon, maybe we would not only keep our communities safer, but also cut down on domestic violence at the time.”
Watch Governor Hickelooper On “State of the Union”
Featured image by Wikimedia, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
