Two posts today.  This first I've been pondering whether or not to write.  As I really need to vent, here I go.  I am not proud to be an American today.  In fact I am downright sickened.  As much as I complain about Italy, with it's disorganization, the break-ins that have us living in a safe, the fact that there is a 90% chance that my car, bag, phone will be stolen, I know that there is a 0% chance of my child being shot in her school.  Italians ask what the Hell is wrong with us.  Good question.  It's not a complicated matter of changing society, dealing with the mentally ill, stopping bullying.  It's a simple matter of changing the law and NOT ALLOWING PEOPLE TO BUY WEAPONS.  If the government used half the effort they have put into anti terrorism, and put it into gun laws in our own country these things wouldn't happen.  A man in China walked into a school the other day with a machete and attacked the students.  It took a while for him to be subdued.  20 kids injured but not one dead.  Crazies are everywhere and that we can't control, but the amount of damage they can inflict we can control.  What I want to know is where is all that outrage that fueled the marches for civil rights, for the Vietnam war.  Where is a Moms Against Guns group?  Can't we stand up against the NRA and everyone in the government who is in the pocket of the arms makers?  Did you hear what the NRA's comment was?  The shooter could have been stopped if the teachers had been armed.  Are we flipping kidding?  In the school in the States we had "lock down" practice.  Every time there is another of these horrible crimes we toughen the security in our schools.  Wouldn't it make more sense to make the crimes impossible to commit.  We can't fly with a bottle of shampoo in our carry-on but we can go to Walmart and buy an automatic weapon.  The government reads our e-mails and traces our overseas travels but does nothing about the fact that someone collects an armory full of weapons.  These incongruities beat Italy's anytime.  I'm horrified and sadly ashamed.  me