Congress can stop terrorism in the U.S. in three simple steps. How, you ask?

1. Look at your clothes. Right now. Look at them. Are you wearing the uniform of a municipal law-enforcement officer, or of an active-duty member of the United States armed forces? No? Then, Congress should TODAY, not tomorrow, outlaw your carrying a handgun or any automatic or semi-automatic firearm, whether “concealed” or not. Notice that this will not apply to rifles of the caliber used for hunting animals that you intend to eat. Notice also that it does not apply to blunderbusses, or matchlocks, or flintlocks, or whatever you call them, that re-enactors use.

2. Congress should also TODAY, not tomorrow, outlaw buying or selling ammunition for any guns at all, except those hunting guns referred to above. Congress could also make an exception for non-lead ammo for shooting animals that you intend to eat. I have nothing against hunters, and I’d much rather have you shoot and eat a deer than hit one with your car (again).

3. Congress should also fund TODAY, not tomorrow, meaningful, no-questions-asked gun-buyback programs in every county in the U.S. The returned guns could be melted down and made into musical instruments, or memorials to the thousands of American citizens killed each year by terrorists – by which I mean, people with guns.

These three steps may sound too “Big Brother” for you. If so, I ask you to recall a certain Christmastime at Sandy Hook Elementary School. And then recall the many, many mass shootings that have happened in our country since then, including, most recently, three in one week.

Guns don’t kill people: People with guns kill people. Notice that I say the three steps outlined here are “simple,” not “easy.” Our elected representatives have shown a wretched, venal, craven and supine reluctance to do anything about terrorism. We must redouble our efforts to let them know their NRA-funded cowardice is unacceptable, and for their part, they must grow a pair of ovaries and take these three steps TODAY-- before school begins.