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Since the news of the slaughter of school children of Newtown, Connecticut began to assault our senses last December, the nation has tried to feel its way to a place where such tragedy is unknown, or certainly less likely.

Since December 14, 2012 at least 3,346 more Americans have died by gunfire. Some of these could be suicides, some could be accidents, some of the people shot were committing crimes, some were armed, some were not. The lobbying arm of the gun and ammunition manufacturing industry, often referred to as the National Rifle Association, has fought the nation's immediate expression of revulsion against guns after the Newtown massacre to a draw. Many polls show in excess of 2/3 of Americans want tighter restrictions on the sale of guns, equivalent numbers want other curbs, such as fewer bullets per clip, tracking of gun show sales, and universal background checks for gun purchasers. Many pols show no spine when confronted by the fanatical gun lobby; Tea Party senators pledge a stonewall defense, through filibuster, against even taking a vote on gun legislation.

The gun apologists dissemble and assure us that, guns don't kill people, people kill people. So, cigarettes don't kill people either? People smoking cigarettes, kill people (themselves). The Max Headroom of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, tautologizes that the only thing that stops a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun.

Constantly ignored by the NRA is the fact that the United States is awash in guns. Perhaps coincidentally, the United States leads the industrialized world in gun deaths, yet LaPierre wants no restrictions, which means he believes we have not yet reached a sufficient number of guns to be safe. It is difficult  to know just how many guns will finally spell safety, but be certain, the NRA will continue to explore those frontiers and help us add to the stockpile. Logic tells us that a floor strewn with tacks increases the danger that we will step on one, so sensible people don't throw more and more tacks on the floor, and walk barefoot.  Why doesn't the same logic apply to guns?

We seem now to face the loss of resolve the nation showed after the Newtown massacre. The spineless, venal, craven, caviling toadies of the NRA wish to sweep the tragedy under the rug. Their motto is "out of sight, out of mind." And their goal is to get back to the business of arming the USA to the teeth, thus squaring the deal they made with the lobbyists. Unfortunately, their stonewalling may succeed. The fresh graves of Newtown's cemeteries, and the fresher ones across the nation since that day, apparently lack shock value. The gun lobby would have us believe these graves are found in the rounding errors of democracy, a frontier where it's every man for himself and each of us must live in fear of our freedom being stolen.

I sincerely believe that if our elected officials in Washington, and in state capitols around the nation would do just one thing to commemorate the victims in Newtown, we would break the back of the NRA, its insidious hold on our democracy, and our collective safety. The one thing, the one action we could take to pry the cold, cold, fingers of the NRA from the neck of our nation is to insist our elected representatives look at the crime scene photographs of the children gunned down in the school house massacre. Bear witness to the gory, bloody, hideous dismemberment wrought by modern military weapons, see what the relentless pummeling of machine gun fire does to the flesh of these innocents. Bear witness to that carnage, Senator McConnell and a dozen more of your sycophants, then look into the eyes of the parents who buried those children and parrot LaPierre's crap that the only thing that stops a bad man with a gun, is a good man with a gun. Then, tell me how you sleep at night.