With So Many Lives Taken, Should Firearms Be Taken, Too?

Patch blogger Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum had a simple but profound question about the Navy Yard shootings earlier this month that left 12 people, plus the gunman, dead.

“Where," he asked, "is the outrage?”

What we now know is this: Aaron Alexis bought his shotgun legally, despite having serious, and documentable, mental problems. A month before the shootings, while working on the Newport Naval Base, he had reached out Newport Police, complaining of being followed, people listening through the walls and using a "microwave machine" to keep him from sleeping at the Newport Marriot Hotel. However, Navy officials didn't consider him a threat.

Alexis' access to guns, along with a seemingly growing numbness to shooting deaths, is what led to Plum’s question. He was disturbed not only about such an obviously troubled man being able to buy a shotgun but also by what he sees as a collective resignation to accept such tragedy.

Are gun laws too weak? Or is the enforcement of gun laws too weak? Are we becoming frighteningly numb to shooting deaths?

Tell us in comments.