December 2, 2015, 19 Americans were killed and 21 wounded in four incidents, one dead, three wounded in Georgia (Atlanta Journal Constitution), two dead in Texas in two incidents (ABC News) and 14 killed and 17 wounded in San Bernardino, California (NPR). In addition, two of the alleged shooters in California were killed and a police officer was wounded in a subsequent shoot-out with police.

As President Obama said, “We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.”  (NY Daily News, ABC News, CBS News.)

A total of 12,209 Americans were shot to death in 350 incidents in the USA thus far in 2015, according to Gun Violence Archive. In 2014 the US population was 318.9 million. So the odds are 0.0038285% – 38.285 in a Million or 1 in 26 thousand (26,119.9) that YOU – or I – will be shot to death in America. That’s better that the one in 175 million chance of winning the Powerball Lottery (Ronald Wasserstein, Huffington Post, here).

Americans are 6,700 times more likely of being shot dead than winning Powerball.

In “The Second Amendment – Revisited” I wrote, back in 2012,

Our rights to quiet enjoyment of a film, as at Aurora, Colorado, pursuit of an education, as at Columbine or Virginia Tech, public engagement with our Representatives in the Congress, as at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ Town Meeting, our rights to live in society outweigh claims to public “enjoyment” of assault rifles with 100-round magazines.

… gun control is legitimate and, just as we require people who want to drive to demonstrate requisite skill in order to be given and keep a driver’s license, and we require people who want to get married to demonstrate a certain fitness and get a marriage license, we must simply define the limits of weapons possession and issue gun licenses.

The Second Amendment guarantees all Americans the right to bear arms in a “well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State.” This right can’t be abridged based on the color of our skin, who we love, or how we approach faith and spirituality. The Second Amendment does not guarantee the right to own weapons of mass destruction, but helps guarantee “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Contact your representative in Congress at CongressMerge, here,

Contact the NRA, the National Rifle Association of America at 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, VA 22030. Contact the NRA by Phone: (800) 672-3888.