Congress just produced a bipartisan bill that makes it slightly more difficult for a few (the young, mentally ill and the obviously violent) to buy guns, but it is pretty clear, given the free trade of almost any kind of weapon almost anywhere (but particularly in red states that have loosened gun ownership over the last ten years), that anyone who really wants just about any weapon can get one. The June 12th Associated Press summarizes the proposed legislation: “The compromise would make the juvenile records of gun buyers under age 21 available when they undergo background checks. The suspects who killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo and 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde were both 18, and many of the attackers who have committed mass shootings in recent years have been young.
“The agreement would offer money to states to implement ‘red flag’ laws that make it easier to temporarily take guns from people considered potentially violent, and to bolster school safety and mental health programs… And it would take other steps, including requiring more people who sell guns obtain federal dealers' licenses, which means they would have to conduct background checks of purchasers.” Do you really believe that officials in red states will enforce even these minimal restrictions?
Perhaps serendipitously, on June 11th, Idaho police officers arrested 31 people (pictured above) who are affiliated with the White nationalist group called Patriot Front, after they were seen gathering near a Pride parade in the city of Coeur d’Alene. Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene and points north are increasingly gathering/training areas for right-wing militias hell-bent on autocratic change. White Christian rule. Guns, particularly military-grade semiautomatic assault weapons with oversized magazines, are badges of “patriotism” for uniformed, bullet-proof-vest-wearing right-wing White supremacists. To them, replacement theory is their driving motivation, Fox News is the source of truth, Donald Trump won the 2020 election by a landslide and the nation is falling victim to Democrats’ proselytizing socialism. They don’t even know what “socialism” means.
If you do not have easy access to an assault weapon because you live in a blue state and do not know how to access the underground sale of guns, you can drive into a red state… or even find what you want online. As long as those estimated 15 million American civilian-owned semiautomatic weapons remain legal on any basis, with or without oversized magazines (the regular, 30-bullet magazine can be changed in a couple of seconds anyway), those people-killing guns will still be the weapons of choice for right-wing militia and mass shooters. And about that “semiautomatic” function, you can order the part needed to make it fully automatic online. And as Australia learned after a mass shooting in 1996, you can ban certain weapons from a civilian population – as a buyback or a simple ban.
Writing for the June 12th Los Angeles Times, Brian Contreras tells us how easy it is to get guns and the necessary parts to go fully automatic: “AR-15s are largely illegal to sell in California. So are high-capacity magazines that can hold more than 10 bullets. But should you manage to get your hands on both, you can reload them faster than ever with just $10.99 and a few clicks on EBay.
“That’s the promise of the ‘Universal Magazine Speed Loader for Rifle,’ a product meant to cut down on how long it takes to slot ammunition into a gun magazine… Until quite recently, the speed loader was available for purchase on the e-commerce platform, with free shipping from Shanghai. Fifty-nine units had already been sold.
“Although it advertised the product as universal, the post helpfully included a list of firearms it could be used to load. That list consisted overwhelmingly of assault rifles, including the AR-15, AK-47, M-16, AK-74, HK33, G36 and Steyr AUG. The main photo also showed the loader being used to fill a high-capacity magazine.
“This is all despite EBay rules that forbid the sale of ‘parts and accessories for assault weapons’ — a policy that a spokesperson said extends to ‘parts designed for assault weapons … even if they can also fit non-assault weapons’ — as well as all high-capacity magazines and any firearm components that are banned in California… EBay subsequently changed its rule from banning ‘products that mention capability with an assault weapon’ to the current, more expansive prohibition on ‘parts and accessories for assault weapons.’
“Yet almost three years later, the site still hosts numerous listings that appear to violate this stricture… Some sellers are brazen about it… One, the ‘AR-15 Super Slim Fixed Rear Sight - Black,’ is featured on EBay’s landing page for ‘Hunting Scope Mounts & Accessories’ as one of the top-rated products in the category… Another, a Thordsen-brand ‘Featureless AR15 Rifle Stock,’ had a starting bid of $79 and free pickup available in Redwood City [California]. (It has since been removed.) According to the Thordsen listing for the same product, ‘featureless’ gun parts modify assault weapons to be compliant with state laws, such as by replacing an adjustable stock with a fixed one. In 2019, EBay said that featureless parts were banned…
“A product called the ‘Lets Go Brandon AR magazine coupler’ ships from Costa Mesa [California] for just under $20. EBay’s rules require listings for firearm parts and accessories to specify the type of gun they fit, but the seller of the ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ [an inside political slam to Joe Biden] coupler appears to have avoided this requirement by listing the item in the category for comics and graphic novels. (Contacted by The Times, the seller said EBay’s system had auto-generated the erroneous category. He deleted the listing.)” And that’s mainstream EBay! With Bitcoin, social media and the dark web, you can still buy anything a shooter wants.
The online universe has ended the notion of “lone wolf” shooters, even those mass shooters seeking notoriety as part of a planned suicide. Right-wing radicalization, accelerated by the Trumpian perpetration of serial lies supported both by social media and Fox News, is no longer the single journey of a single angry soul. It is the result of online communication and gatherings. They are instead rising and legitimized groups of well-armed angry bigots who seriously believe they are patriots. Some are White Christian Nationalists who believe God is on their side. When you combine easy access to AR-15s, social media and high-level legitimization hatred of diversity, we cannot truly be surprised at all the American gun deaths. That most Americans support banning assault weapons, you begin to understand the power of special interests and disinformation in making sure that never happens.
I’m Peter Dekom, and unless you are a racist bigot, when you hear someone describing them selves as a “patriot,” run…
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