Only in America

 

                                                                Poster for late May, annual meeting

We are all acutely aware of the recent mass shootings: On May 14, 2022, identified as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, a self-proclaimed avowed racist, began a mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in Kingsley, an eastern neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, United States. Ten people were killed (all Black), and three others were injured. On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, killing 19 children and 2 teachers, and wounding about 16 others. A picture of mourners is above. Earlier that day, Ramos shot and wounded his 66-year-old grandmother. Lots of “our prayers and condolences” across the nation – a withering same-old/same-old – in a country with almost as many guns as people. Oh, lots of people are “in shock” – why I cannot fathom – and repeated cries from Americans are everywhere, including from the President, for reasonable gun control. Again. And again. And again. But nothing ever happens except looser gun laws.

We are well north of 160 mass shootings this year alone. Are we likely to see national gun control, statutes that will not be struck down by Trump-appointed federal judges? Don’t hold your breath. We couldn’t even get very modest gun control during a Democratic administration after the 2012 Sandy Hook (Newton, CT) mass school shooting (26 killed, of which 20 were between the ages of 6 and 7). We’re relegated to “active shooter” drills in what are supposed to be safe places for our children. Schools.

According to the Brady Campaign, an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control, looking at numbers from the last national election, “More than 90% of Americans want stronger gun laws, like expanding Brady Background Checks to all gun sales, yet Trump has only pandered to the gun lobby, refusing to listen to the will of the people and take up common-sense gun reform.” And they are quick to point out that while the National Rifle Association may have begun as a sun safety organization, the NRA shifted to becoming primarily a paid lobby for American gunmakers in the mid-1970s, as those manufacturers were losing government sales with the end of the Vietnam War.

Guns are durable and, if reasonably maintained, have an exceptionally long functional life. So, the NRA was well paid a. to legitimize ubiquitous gun ownership (which required an entirely new interpretation of the Second Amendment that had never existed before) and b. to support candidates who supported open gun ownership and defeat those who represented reasonable gun control… because an entirely new generation of “cool” weapons were about to hit the market. Their efforts paid off brilliantly with the only Supreme Court decision (Heller vs DC – 2008) since our nation began that ruled the Second Amendment created a basic and universal right to gun ownership. The Court ignored the plain “a well regulated militia” language of that amendment and miscited British law in existence when the amendment passed, era to get there. The decision was rendered well after there were mass school shootings (e.g., Columbine), but the Court’s narrow 5-4 decision seemed to ignore that rising trend. Americans, including children, were expendable dupes to the NRA mandate.

We know that statistically, only one out of thirty-five civilian gun homicides are deemed “justifiable,” thus rendering “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy like a gun” NRA mantra both wrong and dangerously misleading. Strange that after each mass shooting, instead of fighting for reasonable gun control, even universal background checks, red states and Republican Senators push for fewer restrictions on gun ownership and the weapons themselves. Post-mass shooting sales skyrocket every time, as people fear the common-sense gun control, that never comes, will finally pass. As so it goes. We are the only country on earth, not at war, where civilian guns death have reached epidemic proportions. We know are never going to achieve the fewer than ten civilian guns deaths per year that represents Japan, where organized crime is still significant (the infamous Yakuza), but we can do a whole lot better than what exists.

Despite the occurrence of mass school shootings in their home states, Senators like Colorado’s Cory Gardner (from the state where 14 were killed in the Columbine High School massacre in 1999) and Florida’s Marco Rubio (from the state of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that killed 17 in 2018) continue to push against even limited efforts to rein in gun violence. It’s the US Senate, where rural states benefit from the unrepresentative skew of two Senators per state regardless of population, that has been the problem. Given the cloture/ filibuster rule, these bills don’t even make it to a floor vote. Looking at the last national election, Brady examined NRA contributions to each incumbent US Senator. Here are just the top ten recipients of that largesse, all Republicans:

Mitt Romney (R/UT - $13,647,676, average gun deaths per year: 365), Richard Burr (R/NC - $6,987,380, average gun deaths per year: 1311), Roy Blunt (R/MO - $4,555,722, average gun deaths per year: 1074), Thom Tillis (R/NC - $4,421,333, average gun deaths per year: 1311), Cory Gardner (R/CO - $3,939,199, average gun deaths per year: 715), Marco Rubio (R/FL - $3,303,355, average gun deaths per year: 2,568), Joni Ernst (R/IA - $3,124,773, average gun deaths per year: 264), Roy Portman (R/OH - $3,063,327, average gun deaths per year: 1402), Todd Young (R/IN – $2,897,582, average gun deaths per year: 907), Bill Cassidy (R/LA - $2,867,074, average gun deaths per year: 946). A hall of shame. Each and every Senator who has consistently voted against popularly supported gun control should be held personally accountable for these murders.

Texas, home of the latest school massacre (Uvalde), aids and abets gun crime and mass shootings with laws allowing open carry, unpermitted concealed carry, “stand your ground,” legitimized sales of large magazines and military-grade assault weapons and general opposition to universal background checks. Texas is hardly alone in these crime/shooting enabling statutes. They are pervasive in one form or another, where red state legislatures have long prioritized gun ownership over human life… even the lives of their children. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a diehard right-wing Republican, suggested after the Uvalde shooting that schools needed more well-armed guards in school, not gun control. Seriously. And yes, even a majority of Texans support some level of reasonable gun control, but the NRA writes bigger campaign checks.

If you want a list of what this nation needs to mandate, within a narrowing interpretation or total reversal of Heller, in order of likely passage: 1. Universal background checks for all gun owners (weeding out those with a clear propensity for violence, mental illness or criminal convictions), 2. Civil and criminal responsibility for parents with guns in their household where their children commit gun crimes with those weapons. 3. Banning all untraceable guns (those without serial numbers and ghost guns). 4. Repealing all laws that encourage guns for self-defense where there is an alternative for self-protection. 5. Banning large capacity magazines, silencers and other mass shooting enabling devices. 6. Banning semiautomatic assault weapons. 6. Repealing the exemption accorded gunmakers for crimes committed with their weapons (focusing on marketing and lobbying to inappropriate buyers). Mexico and points south, where cartels effectively rule the streets, are almost entirely enabled with American-made guns bought easily here and very easily smuggled there. Days after Uvalde, major Republicans are about to speak at the 2022 NRA annual meeting. Shame? None!

I’m Peter Dekom, and it does seem that the only way to “make the bad man stop” is by voting out GOP Senators who have voted as a bloc against gun control… and have succeeded wildly.