Remember the shoot-out at the OK Corral? It just happened again in modern day America yesterday in Jersey City, New Jersey. 6 are dead after hours of bullets flying in the streets and people going about their everyday lives taking cover in corners, behind desks or wherever they could get to safety.

Just look at the photos in the linked article of men literally marching down the street in fatigues with their rifles held at the ready to shoot. Does that look like a community going about its’ business to you? Or does it look like a war zone? Almost every day there is a war going on in our country. On the 10th day of the month there have been 10 mass shootings.

This is the NRA’s America. This is the America where elected leaders turn their backs on the carnage. And don’t get me started about what else they are turning their backs on.

Innocent people become targets of bullets every day either purposely or inadvertently- mostly on purpose. And more disturbing is that it appears that the shooting was a hate crime though investigations continue:

An assailant involved in a prolonged firefight in Jersey City, N.J., that left six people dead, including one police officer, had published anti-Semitic and anti-police posts online and investigators believe the attack was motivated by those sentiments, a law enforcement official familiar with the case said on Wednesday.

The official said the names of the two suspects were David Anderson and Francine Graham. Mr. Anderson appeared to have a connection to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, which is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy group that tracks such movements.

There you have it. One more hate crime perpetrated by haters, anti-Semites, anti-Muslim men with guns. How many more of these will our country tolerate? How many more will our leaders ignore before they decide to do something. Where do these haters get their guns?

Let’s talk more about violent anti-Semitism a little more than one year after the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh:

But one year after Pittsburgh, that is not the case. From charging that Jewish money controls Washington to saying Jews aren’t truly loyal to America, the use of anti-Semitic slurs has continued across the political spectrum. Anti-Semitic incidents have not abated — nor have other incidents of virulent racism, a fact that is not unrelated.

Data released this week from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism shows that the United States continues to experience record numbers of anti-Semitic incidents; preliminary reporting shows 780 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in the first six months of 2019, almost mirroring the 785 incidents reported during the same period in 2018.

These acts are not just the work of right-wing extremists, nor are they limited to murderous occurrences. They include anti-Semitic taunts and graffiti, and harassment and assaults directed at religious Jews. In the first half of this year, there were 200 such incidents in New York City alone. They form an arc of extremism that is accelerating as hate is normalized and as individuals are radicalized with alarming ease, due in part to the growth and design of social media.

Here we are once again. If you have watched any coverage of this shooting you will here the constant sound of gunshots on the streets of Jersey City. This is insanity itself. One of the dead is a police officer who has been working hard to get guns off the streets of his community. His 5 children are now fatherless:

The fallen officer was identified as Det. Joseph Seals, a 15-year veteran of the department, Kelly said.Seals was part of a statewide anti-violence unit, and Kelly credited him with removing “dozens and dozens” of handguns from the street.”We believe he was killed while trying to interdict these bad guys,” Kelly told reporters, adding, “Once again, this is all being investigated.”The officer who was killed is believed to have been ambushed, according to a law enforcement source.

Sigh. We’ve seen this movie before. Even armed officers are not immune from being shot dead by others with guns.

Here’s the thing. We have too many guns on our streets. Some are legally purchased by law abiding gun owners. Some are legally purchased by prohibited people because background checks are not required for every gun sale. Some are illegally obtained be being stolen, through a straw purchase or by gun trafficking ( where guns are sometimes obtained legally and then sold to illegal gun purchasers).

It’s also one more mass shooting. It’s Dec. 11th. There have been 11 mass shootings so far in December according to the Gun Violence Archive.

There is no common sense when it comes to our gun culture or our gun laws, or lack thereof. And that is our national disgrace, our national nightmare, our national tragedy, our national epidemic of gun violence.

We are truly better than this. If we aren’t shame on us.