Update: 12/1/09
Clemmons was shot dead early Tuesday morning after a confrontation with a lone Seattle police officer investigating a stolen vehicle, according to the Seattle Times. The weapon of one of the four murdered officers was allegedly found in Clemmons' possession.

Update: 11/30/09
Police say Clemmons was not in the house they surrounded. A warrant has been issued for his arrest and $125,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to his capture.

The alleged execution-style murders of four police officers in Lakewood, Wash., Sunday by Maurice Clemmons, 37, is just the latest in a string of mass shootings in this country that have become so common they almost aren't shocking anymore. The murders also highlight the fact that it is too easy to get your hands on a gun in this country and that mass killings won't stop until we do something about the availability of firearms.

Police say that Clemmons is suspected of walking in to a coffee shop just outside of Tacoma, where four officers were on their computers filing reports and preparing to begin their shifts. After allegedly flashing a weapon, an employee fled and then later heard gunshots.

Two officers were executed and a third tried to stop the shooting but was shot. A fourth officer managed to make it outside, where he opened fire on the suspect before collapsing and dying.

The murders of officers Tina Griswold, 40, Ronald Owens, 37, Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39 and Greg Richards, 42, are being described as the worst violence against police in Washington State history and come a month after a Seattle officer was executed while sitting in his police vehicle.

According to a report in the New York Times, police believe Clemmons was wounded and has possibly died from his injuries. A house in Seattle where he is believed to be hiding is surrounded.

According to the Seattle Times:

Investigators have no indication that Clemmons had a motive aimed specifically at any of the particular officers who were gunned down, Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. "He was upset about being incarcerated," Troyer said. "He was just targeting cops.".....Clemmons has a long criminal record in Arkansas and Washington. He was released from custody in Pierce County just a week ago and was facing a charge of raping a child. Family members described him as being in a state of mental deterioration. Last spring, he was also accused of punching a sheriff's deputy in the face.

One of the questions that should come out of this tragedy is why it was so easy for someone with a criminal record and mental issues to acquire a weapon.

Look at the record of recent mass shootings and the same story emerges. Had guns not been so readily available, the killings may not have happened.

Easy gun access made it possible for an Army psychiatrist to kill 13 people at Fort Hood,Texas, earlier this month and for a young, disturbed man to kill 32 people during the Virginia Tech massacre. That's right, one person killed more than two dozen people in a matter of minutes. Neither of these tragedies would have been possible with knives.

In 2007, 1.2 million pistols, 1.5 million rifles and more than a million shotguns, revolvers and other types of firearms were manufactured in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That's not even counting the number of guns imported to this country. In 2000, at least 1 million guns were imported here. I have not heard a logical reason why we need that many guns. If so many guns were not floating around they would not fall into the hands of criminals and the mentally ill so easily.

The research is clear: access to guns increases homicides. The Harvard School of Health has documented dozens of studies that come to one conclusion: "Across developed countries, where guns are more available, there are more homicides. These results often hold even when the United States is excluded."

A leading advocate of making guns more difficult to access, U.C.Berkeley Law Professor Franklin. E. Zimring, concluded:

That even the most cursory review of American gun-homicide data shows that reducing guns' "market share" of homicide must be a key ingredient of an enlightened firearms policy. This supposedly follows from the fact that gun assaults are 5–7 times more likely to result in death than non-gun assaults and from the fact that 70 percent of American homicides are committed with guns. Other countries with assault rates similar to America's but with lower gun prevalence and with a commensurately lower percentage of homicide committed with guns enjoy homicide rates 50%+ lower than America.

The shootings in Washington are a tragedy, but when will we stop being shocked and demand change?