*Ten years ago during an interview on CNN’s Piers Morgan program after the Sandy Hook tragedy in December 2012, singer/actress Barbra Streisand said: “The horrible tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut has brought to the forefront a much needed and long overdue national conversation regarding the lack of gun control and mental health services in our country…I hope the story of Sandy Hook Elementary finally catalyzes the nation, and our leaders in Washington, to commit to doing something substantive regarding gun control and access to mental healthcare services to those who desperately need it.”
This past June President Biden signed into law the first major gun safety legislation passed in decades. The measure fell short of banning any weapons but does provide funding for school safety and intervention programs. Many states have also passed new laws to help stem the tide of gun violence. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed three measures – AB 1594, AB 2571, and AB 1621 – which will allow Californians to sue irresponsible gun makers, prohibit the marketing of firearms to minors, and further restrict ghost guns.
These measures all lean in the right direction, but fall short of one common denominator – banning the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle which is known to be the weapon of choice of mass murderers.
Following is an article I wrote on that fateful morning December 2012 as details of Sandy Hook were unfolding: Did the Devil Take the 13-Hour Flight from China to Connecticut?
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*The Associated Press reported that on December 14, 2012, just before 8AM in central China, a knife-wielding man injured 22 school children and one adult. There were no casualties, and all the victims are expected to recover. China is 13 hours ahead of the United States which means while the ordeal was taking place in China, it would have been around 7PM (EST) December 13th in the U.S. where children were probably wrapping gifts, and helping with decorations, while visions of Christmas presents were dancing in their tiny heads.
Unfortunately, 20 American children, along with 8 adults would meet a deadlier fate just 14 hours later in Newtown Connecticut. The similarities of the two devastating incidents are uncanny: the ages of the Chinese children ranged from 6 – 11, the American children 5 – 10; both incidents happened at an elementary school in the early morning and included adults, and both suspects reportedly suffered some mental challenges.
Another strange coincidence is the timeline: it’s about a 13-hour flight from China to Connecticut, and one could wonder if it were the devil himself – bent on finishing what he started in China – who caught a flight to incarnate and shed more innocent blood on this continent. As the Sandy Hook school massacre continues to unfold it’s hard to grapple with and make any sense out of such a dastardly deed that could only have been orchestrated from the depths of hell.
Although some of those injured in China are in critical condition, it could have been a very different outcome if China had no strict gun control laws. In a CNN Hong Kong report, Dr. Ding Xueliang, a Harvard-educated sociologist at the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong said, “The huge difference between this case and the U.S. is not the suspect, nor the situation, but the simple fact he did not have an effective weapon.” Perhaps China is ahead of the United States in more ways than one.
Larry Buford is a contributing writer. Author of “Things Are Gettin’ Outta Hand” and “Book To The Future” (Amazon). Email: [email protected]
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