The AP has taken a closer look at the recent rampage of gun violence in this country:

They had more in common than unleashing carnage _ nearly every gunman in this monthlong series of mass killings was legally entitled to fire his weapons.

So what does that say about the state of gun control laws in this country? One thing appears certain: the regulations aren’t getting stricter. Many recent efforts to change weapons laws have been about easing them.

Despite eight rampages that have claimed 57 lives since March 10, “it hasn’t sparked any national goal to deal with this epidemic. In fact, it’s going the other way,” said Scott Vogel of the Freedom States Alliance, a gun control activist group.

And yet Washington is mum on this. Well mum except to say “we are scared to do anything”:

Even President Barack Obama has felt that sway. Last month, 65 House Democrats said they would block any attempt to resurrect an expired federal ban against assault weapons.

The pro-gun Democrats, led by Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, wrote Attorney General Eric Holder saying they opposed not only a ban on military-style guns, but also efforts “to pass any similar law.”

The claim they are worried about a “long and divisive fight”, or in other words “we might lose votes”.

So how do we address what can only be described as an increase in domestic terrorism? Our leaders are vowing to not keep us safe. They are too scared of their political futures to do anything. The police are going to have more troubles keeping us save, especially when they are being targeted.

So what can keep us safer? To some the answer is – MORE GUNS:

few states are trying to loosen gun restrictions. In the Texas Capitol _ where legislators can carry guns _ bills easily passed the Senate in recent weeks that would allow employees to bring weapons to work as long as they leave them locked in their cars, and let those packing heat off the legal hook if they walked into a bar that didn’t have signs saying guns weren’t allowed inside.

The state also is considering allowing students licensed to carry a concealed weapon _ there are about 300,000 such adults in Texas _ to bring guns on campus.

Welcome back to the OK Corral. Instead of our country moving forward, we are moving back to the 1800’s.

This country has sat there and shredded the constitution following the 9/11 attacks. Everyone was scared to death. We saw 3,000 lives lost on that September day. From 2002-2005 we saw 116,780 lives lost from gun violence, and yet we are complacent in doing nothing.

What’s it going to take to get change? Before it took a Republican president being shot, and one of his aides being paralyzed from a gun. So what will it take now – some politicians kids being killed, god forbid? Are their lives more important than ours?

Just think about it. We have been involved in a national debate on our constitutional rights when it comes to terrorism for the past several years. We can debate getting rid of Habeas Corpus because of the theory that some terrorist might have a weapon that could destroy an American city – the Jack Bauer theory. This gun violence isn’t some wild theory – it is reality. It is a deadly reality, and our leaders are mum.

Washington has a duty to act. They are sworn to protect this nation, something we heard time and time again during the Bush year, and their fear (silence) can only be classified as a negligence of duty.