Five years ago today Tucson was forced to endure random murder and chaos. People were shot and recovered. Some died. Since then, many more have been killed. This nation is dedicated to the proposition that all people should have the means, the guns, to kill others. It happens so frequently that it has become a sort of American pastime. Anymore, we hardly blink an eye when confronted by murder by handgun.

No one, except for the president alone, has tried to do a thing about it.

The New York Times reports the stock of two firearms manufacturers is on the rise. The stock is a good buy because the killing bidness in this country is in full flower, waxing behind the promise of astonishing profits in killing our fellow man, woman and, in particular, child. This is the American Nightmare that our politicians embrace as though it were the American Dream. Just as there is apparently no serious recourse to ending the insanity of gun violence, there can be precious little faith in the once noble ideal that this is a nation of the people, by the people and for the people. Just substitute “gun” for “people,” and you have what we are, the NRA nation, violent, brutal and deadly. None dare call this civilization.