If not now, when ...

   In the past five years, nearly 300 Americans have died in mass shooting incidents throughout the country.
   Yet, when still another incident happens and the death toll rises, politicians and lobbyists say, "Now is not the time" to talk about gun control.
   They cite the power of raw emotion and its ability to diminish logical thinking, therefore we should wait. We should delay working on gun legislation until we calm down and are ready to listen to opposing opinions.
   But there is nothing opinionated about  300 dead bodies. The harsh fact of violent death is not an opinion. Thoughts and prayers don't bring back loved ones.
   As for defining "mass shooting," those who track gun violence start their count at four deaths in a single incident. It's not as if the first three don't matter, but a definition, however arbitrary, must start somewhere.
   So let's start with this year's count, using five as the minimum death count per incident, and going backwards in time:

Aug.  31 -- Odessa, Texas, 8 shot dead.
Aug. 4 -- Dayton, Ohio, 9 slain.
Aug. 3 -- El Paso, Texas, 22 killed by gunfire.
May 31 -- Virginia Beach, Virginia, 12 dead.
Feb. 15 -- Aurora, Illinois, 5 fatally shot.
Jan. 23 -- Sebring, Florida, 5 shot dead during a bank robbery.

Total so far this year: 61.

For the year 2018:

Nov. 7 -- Thousand Oaks, California, 12 slain at a tavern.
Oct. 27 -- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 11 killed at a synagogue.
June 28 -- Annapolis, Maryland, 5 shot in a newspaper office.
May 18 -- Santa Fe, Texas, 10 killed at a high school.
Feb. 14 -- Parkland, Florida, 17 slain at a high school.

Total for the year: 55.

For the year 2017:

Nov. 5 -- Sutherland Springs, Texas, 26 killed at a church.
Oct. 1 -- Las Vegas, Nevada, 58 shot at a music festival.
June 5 -- Orlando, Florida, 5 slain.
Jan. 6 -- Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 5 killed at the airport.

Total for the year: 84

In the year 2016:

Sept. 23 -- Burlington, Washington, 5 shot at a movie theater.
Jan. 12 -- Orlando, Florida, 49 slain at a dance hall.

Total: 54

In the year 2015:

Dec. 2 --- San Bernardino, California, 14 shot and killed.
Oct. 1 -- Roseburg, Oregon, 9 slain at a college.
July 16 -- Chattanooga, Tennessee, 5 gunshot victims.
June 18 -- Charleston, South Carolina, 9 deaths at a church.

   Total for the five year period so far: 286 victims of mass shooting incidents of five victims or more. There are others, of course, who died in other incidents as well as individual shootings.

   Going back in time, there are other well known mass shooting incidents, including the massacre at a high school in Columbine, Colorado, where 15 people, including the two shooters, died in 1999.
   In Newtown, Connecticut, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, some 27 people -- most of them children -- died in perhaps the deadliest mass shooting at a school in U.S. history. That was in 2012.

    Sadly, that list is not complete. There are other shootings with multiple victims over many years throughout America. Anyone with a need to research the total should find it easy, since there are many groups that track gun violence.
   Question: Does the Second Amendment to the Constitution protect the rights of all the individual shooters to have and to use as many weapons as they choose, in any manner they choose?
   I'm fully in favor of the Second Amendment, because I believe that a well regulated militia is necessary for the security of a free state, and therefore the federal government should not interfere with the right of each state to have its own security forces -- well regulated -- and that includes state, county and local police units. This prevents any federal domination bordering on dictatorship of the several free and independent states.
   The Constitution does not say that every individual can have as many weapons of whatever capacity he may like with no regulation at all.
   So can the federal government limit the use of automatic weapons? Yes. The National Firearms Act of 1934 required registration of the Thompson submachine gun (Tommy gun) and other "gangster weapons" as well as sawed-off shotguns.
   Why, then, the hesitation to limit access to military style weapons such as the AR 15 and other automatic guns?
   It was done for the Tommy gun. Ownership may be legal in a few states, but only if the gun was made before 1986 or is a replica designed for collectors. Cost: $30,000 or more.
   AR 15 assault style rifles are easily available for far less money. Civilians don't need them.