There isn’t the slightest doubt that
who pulls the trigger is the killer. But likewise, there isn’t the slightest
doubt that pulling the trigger on a semi-automatic assault rifle is designed to
kill a lot more people. Add to this horror is the difference between a bullet
fired from an ordinary pistol, which rides straight, to one fired from a
military-grade assault rifle designed to rotate sideways to tear flesh and body
parts, literally exploding inside the intended victim. In war, completely
taking out your opponent, even with a less than centered shot, is essential.
Why civilians need that capacity has never been explained in a way that makes
the slightest sense.
Eschewing the words “domestic
terrorism” and never blaming gun-makers and permissive gun laws as causes, even
Donald Trump’s mild embracing of “background checks” is all about finding those
who are mentally ill, even though most mentally ill persons are hardly violent.
Political adherents, those who embrace Nazi-like extermination of “inferiors,”
who are zealots but hardly fit any traditional mental illness paradigm, have
little to fear in this nascent background-check effort. Note that GOP Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is unwilling to call Congress back in session
to deal with this issue, instead hoping that by the time Congress resumes its
normal post-summer-break in September, the zeal for any gun reform will have
passed.
The willingness to blame anything but
the genuine causes of mass killings is a GOP axiom. Their complete distortion
of the meaning and intent of the Second Amendment has become basic doctrine. It
is only the growing resentment of mass gun killings that is impacting
traditional GOP-strongholds in suburban America. So some minor concessions,
touted as GOP leadership by red state officials, will probably pass for
“serious reform,” but – wink, wink – we know better.
But hey, it must be the pervasive use of
violent, shoot-em-up video games that is the real cause. That’s what Donald
Trump said, and that view as become red state gospel. “In the wake of the El Paso
shooting on Aug. 3 that left 22 dead and dozens injured, a familiar
trope has reemerged: Often, when a young man is the shooter, people try
to blame the
tragedy on violent video games and other forms of media.
“This time
around, Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick placed some of the blame on a
video game industry that ‘teaches
young people to kill.’ House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican
from California, went on to condemn
video games that ‘dehumanize individuals’ as a ‘problem for
future generations.’ And President Trump pointed to society’s ‘glorification of
violence,’ including ‘gruesome
and grisly video games.’
“These are
the same connections a Florida lawmaker made after the Parkland shooting in
February 2018, suggesting that the gunman in that case ‘was prepared to pick off
students like it’s a video game.’” Christopher Ferguson writing for the
August 10th FastCompany.com. Yup, dehumanization is bad,
particularly for those damned “rapists and murderers” wanting to cross our
southern border. Who is the biggest single gun seller in the country?
Even as
Walmart employees objected to that major retailer’s commitment to gun sales,
Walmart simply fell back on that meaningless trope. “Walmart Inc. is removing displays of
violent video games and movies in its stores after two deadly shootings at its
locations in Texas and Mississippi in recent weeks.
“Walmart Chief Executive Doug
McMillon this week said that the company will be ‘thoughtful and deliberate in
our responses’ to the shootings, which left 22 people dead in El Paso and
killed two employees at a store in Southaven, Miss.
“The company has no plans to stop
selling guns or ammunition, spokesman Randy Hargrove said in an interview
Sunday, the day after the El Paso shooting… A man armed with a rifle was
arrested Thursday [8/8] at a Walmart in Springfield, Mo.
“Supporters of stricter gun laws have
said that Walmart — as one of the nation’s biggest sellers of guns and
ammunition, with more than 4,700 stores — could do more to stem the flow of
firearms in the United States. This week, a worker at Walmart’s San Bruno,
Calif.-based e-commerce division organized protests against the company’s
policy.” Los Angeles Times, August 10th. There’s just this catch:
there is absolutely no evidence that there is any linkage between such mass
killings and videogames. None. Zero.
“As far back as 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that research did not find a clear connection between violent video games and
aggressive behavior. Criminologists who study mass shootings specifically refer
to those sorts of connections as a ‘myth.’ And in 2017, the Media Psychology and
Technology division of the American Psychological Association released a statement [Christopher
Ferguson] helped craft, suggesting reporters and policymakers cease linking
mass shootings to violent media, given the lack of evidence for a link…
“Any claims that
there is consistent evidence that violent video games encourage aggression are
simply false… Spikes in violent video games’
popularity are
well known to correlate with substantial declines in youth violence—not
increases. These correlations are very strong, stronger than most seen in
behavioral research. More recent research suggests that the releases of highly popular violent
video games are associated with immediate declines in violent crime, hinting that
the releases may cause the drop-off.” Ferguson. Assault weapons. Lax guns laws.
A pervasive rural value of gun ownership that simply does not work in large
cities. The National Rifle Association. The Republican Party. We know. We
really do know. How many more must die because this country does not deal with
obvious very well?
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