A senseless tragedy has happened once again.

“My View” from the July 20, 2012, edition of “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer.”

The words of sympathy from our nation’s leaders in response to the horrific events in Colorado last night are welcome, and we all share the sentiments.

But I disagree with one word that both President Obama and former Gov. Romney used to describe the tragedy. The word is “shocking.”

The one thing this horror is NOT is shocking. After the litany of mass shootings we have had over the past years, we should by now be braced for this tragedy, not shocked by it.

No one should be shocked. Just as we should not have been shocked by the killing of seven at Oikos University in April; or the school shooting in Shardon, Ohio in February; or the Arizona shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others — killing six — in 2011; or the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007; or the Columbine shooting over 13 years ago.

Depending on which study you choose, there are 10,000 gun murders in the United States every year. According to USA Today, there are on average 20 mass shootings per year. And according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, every day in America guns claim 84 lives and wound nearly 200.

Perhaps that’s partly because the public seems to care less and less. According to Gallup, in 1990 almost 80 percent of Americans said that laws covering the sales of firearms should be made more strict. By 2010, that number was only 44 percent.

In fact, starting in 2009, the majority of respondents said gun laws should either remain the same or be made less strict.

And I’m tired of hearing about the Second Amendment as a bar to useful measures — it isn’t. There is no right to buy submachine guns or silencers or uniquely hazardous bullets without background checks — or at all.

So let’s act, not just wring our hands. It is time to ban all military-style semi-automatic assault weapons; ban assault clips holding more than 10 rounds; and require that new guns have micro-stamping technology so bullets left at crime scenes can be traced. These are simple, moderate steps.

This tragedy is not shocking; it is a reminder. A stark reminder of our inability to do what so many other nations have done: put in place meaningful gun control.

When will our leaders start to lead and do the job we elected them to do? Never as long as the gun lobbies funded by The National Rifle Association keep them in a perpetual state of fear (a selfish fear of losing their jobs) paralyzing them to the point of DOING NOTHING.

I did a Google search to compile a list of inside terrorist killings (fifth column) in the United States since 1990. These statistics are appalling. Each year, each death and each maiming, represents a deep relentless grief for some family and still the weapons that created this anguish and bereavement are freely marketed and sold like so many pieces of candy. These are weapons of war that any crazed killer without a record of illegal activity can purchase with savings from their piggy bank. It's a reality that has become so ugly and shameful, we as a people should be shaking our fists at our leaders while yelling... DO SOMETHING!

But only a handful of citizens will feel this outrage and as the dust from yet another enormous catastrophe settles, the NRA will go about its business of meetings, promising its members less gun regulations, enabling more weapons to be sold and the rest of us will all go back to our comfort place, without giving much thought to the fact that another mass killing will surely take place in one of our schools, malls, restaurants, churches or movie theaters, etc. while our leaders will continue to play their childish game of chance with our country, our democracy and our lives. Thinkingblue

PS: A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within. A fifth column can be a group of secret sympathizers of an enemy that are involved in sabotage within military defense lines, or a country's borders. A key tactic of the fifth column is the secret introduction of supporters into the whole fabric of the entity under attack. This clandestine infiltration is especially effective with positions concerning national policy and defense. From influential positions like these, fifth-column tactics can be effectively utilized, from stoking fears through misinformation campaigns, to traditional techniques like espionage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column

Timeline: Mass shootings in the United States since 1990

January 2011 - a gunman opened fire at a public gathering outside a grocery in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people including a 9-year-old girl and wounding at least 12 others. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was severely injured with a gunshot to the head.

February 2010 – A professor opened fire 50 minutes into at a Biological Sciences Department faculty meeting at the University of Alabama, killing three colleagues and wounding three others.

November 2009 - U.S. army psychologist Major Nidal Hasan opened fire at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas, leaving 13 dead and 42 others wounded.

July 2009 - Six people, including one student, were shot in a drive-by shooting at a community rally on the campus of Texas Southern University, Houston.

April 2009 - a man shot dead 13 people at a civic center in Binghamton, New York.

March 2009 - six people were shot dead in a high-grade apartment building in Santa Clara, California.

March 2009 - a heavily armed gunman shot dead eight people, many of them elderly and sick people, in a private-owned nursing home in North Carolina.

March 2009 - a 28-year-old laid-off worker opened fire while driving a car through several towns in Alabama, killing 10 people.

December 2008 - a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit opened fire at a family Christmas party in Covina, California, then set fire on the house and killed himself. Police later found nine people dead in the debris of the house.

September 2008 - a mentally ill man who was released from jail one month earlier shot eight people in Alger, Washington, leaving six of them dead and the rest two wounded.

February 2008 - a man opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, killing five students and wounding 16 others before laying down his weapon and surrendering.

February 2008 - a shooter who is still at large tied up and shot six women at a suburban clothing store in Chicago, leaving five of them dead and the remaining one injured.

December 2007 - a woman and her boyfriend shot dead six members of her family on Christmas Eve in Carnation, Washington.

December 2007 - a 20-year-old man killed nine people and injured five others in a shopping center in Omaha, Nebraska.

August 2007 - Three Delaware State University students were shot and killed in “execution style” by a 28-year-old and two 15-year-old boys. A fourth student was shot and stabbed.

April 2007 - student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 15 others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, before shooting himself, making it the deadliest mass shooting in the United States after 2000.

October 2006 - a truck driver killed five schoolgirls and seriously wounded six others in a school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before taking his own life.

March 2005 - a man opened fire at a church service in Brookfield, Wisconsin, killing seven people.

November 2004 - in Birchwood, Wisconsin, a hunter killed six other hunters and wounded two others after an argument with them.

Aug. 27,2003 - Salvador Tapia, 36, a fired employee for poor performance at Windy City Core Supply Inc., hunted down and shot to death six people in an auto parts warehouse at Chicago before being fatally shot by police.

July 8, 2003 - A gunman dressed in camouflage opens fire at a Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, Miss. The county sheriff confirms six dead, including the shooter, and several others injured.

July 2, 2003 - Jonathan Russell, 25, shoots and kills three co-workers and wounds five more at the Modine Manufacturing Co. near Jefferson City, Mo. before killing himself during a standoff with police.

March 22, 2002 - William Lockey, 54, walks into the aircraft parts plant in South Bend, Ind., where he worked and opened fire, killing four co-workers and wounding two others. He commits suicide after leading police on a high-speed chase into Michigan.

Feb. 21, 2002 - John E. Mabie, 70, a retired Newark police officer, kills his granddaughter and three neighbors in Toms River, N.J., going from house to house shooting a .39-caliber revolver, according to prosecutors.

Feb. 4-5, 2002 - Six people are shot to death near Camden, N.J., four at one home and two in an apartment complex the following day. A 16-year-old boy, the nephew of one of the victims, has been charged in the slayings. He has not been identified because he is a minor.

Dec. 6, 2001 - Robert Wissman, 36, an employee of Nu-Wood Decorative Millwork, walks into the company factory in Goshen, Ind., and opens fire on co-workers with a shotgun. Wissman, who police said had been involved in a workplace love triangle, kills a manager and wounds six other employees before taking his own life.

Feb. 5, 2001 - William D. Baker, 66, a former employee of Navistar International forced his way into the plant. He killed four people and wounded four others before taking his own life. He was to begin a five-month prison term for theft of company property.

Dec. 26, 2000 - Software tester Michael McDermott allegedly kills seven people at a Wakefield, Mass., Internet consulting company, Edgewater Technology Inc. Authorities say the shooting may have stemmed from an IRS order to seize part of his wages to repay back taxes. He pleads innocent.

Nov. 2, 1999 - Employee Byran Uyesugi opens fire at a Xerox Corp. office in Honolulu, killing seven before fleeing in a company van. He surrendered after five-hour standoff with police and was later convicted and sentenced to life without parole.

Sept. 15, 1999 - A gunman enters a church service for teens in Ft. Worth, Texas, and opens fire with a semiautomatic handgun. He kills three adults and three teens, wounding eight more, before he kills himself in a church pew.

Aug. 10, 1999 - A man opens fire at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles, wounding five people. A postal worker is later shot and killed. Buford Furrow Jr., 37, later surrenders in Las Vegas.

Aug. 5, 1999 - Former employee Alan Eugene Miller shoots two people to death at a construction supply company where he worked in Pelham, Ala., and then kills third at business where he formerly worked. Miller was later convicted and sentenced to death.

July 29, 1999 - Nine people killed and 13 wounded at two Atlanta brokerage offices. Gunman Mark Barton, a former day trader who had reportedly lost more than $400,000 on his investments, later commits suicide.

June 11, 1999 - Joseph Brooks Jr., 27, kills his former psychiatrist and a woman at the doctor's Southfield, Mich., clinic. Four others are injured before Brooks kills himself.

April 15, 1999 - Sergei Babarin, 71, opens fire in the Mormon Family History Library in Salt Lake City, killing two and wounding four others before police shoot him to death.

March 18, 1999 - Walter V. Shell, 71, turns himself in after allegedly shooting to death his attorney and one of his clients in Johnson City, Tenn. Shell blamed the lawyer for a $100,000 loss in a dispute over his ex-wife.

March 6, 1999 - Former accountant for the Connecticut Lottery Corp., Matthew Beck, 35, fatally shoots four lottery senior executives and then kills himself.

Jan. 14, 1999 - Di-Kieu Duy, 24, allegedly opens fire in a Salt Lake City office building, killing one person and wounding another.

Dec. 18, 1997 - Arturo Reyes Torres, 43, kills four former co-workers at maintenance yard in Orange, Calif., and is shot to death by police.

Sept. 15, 1997 - Fired assembly line worker Arthur H. Wise, 43, allegedly opens fire at Aiken, S.C., parts plant, killing four and wounding three others. He was convicted and sentenced to death.

April 24, 1996 - Firefighter Kenneth Tornes kills four superiors at firehouse in Jackson, Mississippi. Tornes dies on Death Row.

July 19, 1995 - City electrician Willie Woods fatally shoots four supervisors at C. Erwin Piper Technical Center in Los Angeles. He is later sentenced to life in prison.

April 3, 1995 - James Simpson, 28, walks into office of his former employer, Walter Rossler Co., a refinery inspection company, in Corpus Christi, Texas, and shoots five workers before shooting himself to death.

Nov. 14, 1991 - Fired postal worker Thomas McIlvane kills four supervisors and wounds five workers at the Royal Oak, Mich., post office, then kills himself.

June 18, 1990 - James Edward kills nine and wounds four others at Jacksonville, Fla., office of General Motors Acceptance Corp., a car financing company, before killing himself.

SOURCES:

http://www.newsmax.com/US/mass-shootings-us-colorado/2012/07/20/id/445971

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-08/28/content_259210.htm