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| World War I Memorial, Nashville |
There, am I done? Because this commenting on the latest school shooting — three 9-year-olds, three staffers and the shooter killed Monday at a religious school in Nashville — well, it gets tiresome. I suppose I could just join the great communal shrug that most people give, a sigh, a quick checking of the details, then forget about it and go about our business.
Nobody really cares — or rather, these deaths don’t shake the deep, passionate, quasi-religious, quasi-sexual devotion that too many Americans have toward high-powered weaponry. They certainly care, intensely, about guns. They cared yesterday, they care now, and they’ll care tomorrow. Far more passionately than they care about children. That is clear.
Nor do these killings stir the rest of Americans from our lethargy. We’re complicit. We watch the same movies, buy the same get-the-drop-on-the-bad-guy gun fantasies, and allow this situation to persist. For years and years.
Three kids dead — not really all that many on the Columbine Scale. But it could be 30 or 300. What difference would it make? Does it matter if kids are picked off in bunches or one at a time? In a quiet Southern school or sitting on their stoop on the West Side of Chicago? Shootings are the leading cause of death for children in the United States, a kind of American folk illness, one that many other countries don’t have because they have sane gun laws.
We have the Second Amendment. Which could still allow us to keep this from happening — it used to. Law is open to interpretation. The way the First Amendment stretches to allow any glittery-eyed parent with gumption enough to raise a fuss to start pulling books off the shelves at publicly funded libraries. Imagine if parents tried to tamp down gun ownership with half the zeal they use to go after books?
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I'm sure your right that some portion of the citizens of this country dont pay attention to the shootings that occur over and over again in schools across America . Then there's the rest of us. This shit really brings me down. especially the effect it has on my own children. I feel helpless and yet somehow responsible for the circumstances that lead to these tragedies .
ReplyDeleteAs citizens we elect the representatives that make the laws that govern our behavior. there are many laws prohibiting the use of firearms. We are not willing to take action to restrict the ownership of weapons. all weapons . New laws restricting the use of guns may be the solution, but I doubt it. Strict regulation through education and an ability to demonstrate disciplined behavior , a licensing protocol .Strict enforcement. Denial to some of access to weapons may be the only way to reduce the violence.
This is not a popular stance.
Is it too soon to conclude that legislators wearing rifle/NRA pins has not worked? If no, how many more? Asking in memory of the substitute teacher and custodian from Nashville,
DeleteI don't know if you're asking me these questions .Though you did reply to my comments. Representatives wearing rifle pins?
DeleteI just wonder if you disagree that since firearms are not going to disappear that we could work to insist that ownership entail mental health screening ,testing ,education and training?
Also, if people fail these courses that they be denied the opportunity to own firearms?
According to Marjorie Taylor Greene, the shootings were Trans/Antifa motivated, and Josh Hawley believes this is a hate crime against Christians, though the shooter went to the school. It's always too soon, thoughts and prayers, and let's not blame weapons of war. Good excuse to do nothing, collect that NRA money, and let citizens needlessly and cruelly die. Insanity.
ReplyDeleteOnce again...https://youtu.be/Op7agdIFOGY
ReplyDeleteThis link is a song that seems to support repeal of the 2nd amendment
DeleteIs that what you're supporting? Not that I have any objection to that. It's a brave stance, not a popular one
An interview with a TN state rep was asked if this was finally the incident to create changes. His reply, "I doubt it. The Legislators need something more before considering change." Refreshing acknowledgement of what we know vs the verbal vomit. I'm sorry Biden is sad and mad (Not much better than thoughts and prayers) - although truthfully it isn't the president who would need to make a change. You're likely to have to write another article again, sadly probably not too far off
ReplyDeleteNot that these events should be treated with less attention but the fact is this is one of the things that defines the US. Kids being shot. The highest cause of death of children in this country.
ReplyDeleteI’m surprised Desantis is allowing this news to be distributed in Florida.
It is easy to blame the politicians but the real blame goes to the people who elect these opportunists.
"A well regulated militia" - The means exists to stop this madness if they actually enforce the second amendment as it's written. The courts and the legislature have chosen not to regulate arms or insist on membership in government controlled militias.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the issue that the conservatives, obsessive over the "original intent" of the framers of the constitution, ignore that the original intent was that the arms they were protecting were single shot, muzzle loading weaponry. Hard to rob a convenience store or commit mass murder with a muzzle loader.
Now we have modern battlefield weaponry in the hands of zealots and the mentally ill. The Founders are rolling over in their graves.
Maybe people don’t know what to do or who to turn to? Maybe the media should regularly publish a list of foes and friends of sane gun laws, especially around elections.
ReplyDeleteA point that doesn't seem to be raised much is that assault-style weapons are uniquely UN-suited for anything other than mass murder. Even gangbangers and bank robbers don't lug those big, heavy things around, preferring smaller and more-easily concealed weapons instead. The Founding Fathers couldn't conceive of such a weapon, and thinking that it's included in their well-regulated militia reference is just silly.
ReplyDeleteIs there some official reason why your average assault-rifle owner couldn't splurge on a bazooka, grenade launcher or flamethrower instead? Are there laws governing their use that assault rifles are currently able to elude?
If we really cared, we would do away with all guns-period- end of problem.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed after Monday's shooting is that the major networks slapped a label on the shooter almost immediately: "She identified herself as transgender...and was being treated by a doctor for an emotional disorder." Whatever that is.
ReplyDeleteThanks, glassbowls...just what we needed to hear. Now I'm waiting for a lone hater, or maybe a posse of yahoo haters, to shoot up an LGBTQ community center or a drag show at a library, or a gay church. Will I be saddened and shocked...and, as an "ally"...royally pissed? Damn betcha. Will I be surprised? Hell, no.
You know that somebody wants to do it. And they probably will. They're locking and loading and drawing up a battle plan, even as I type this comment. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. Maybe the day after tomorrow.
As a civil society, America is toast. Burnt toast. It's only getting worse. Today is the 88th day of the year. The box score now stands at 129 "mass casualty" shootings in 2023. Do the math. Almost three shootings every two days. Move along, folks. Show's over. Nothing to see here.
Perhaps extending full 2nd Amendment rights to The Supreme Court building is the only way to unplug the toaster.
DeleteAre you espousing Civil War 2.0...or what? The thought of it is abhorrent to most responsible Americans, and it is not a popular sentiment in most sane circles. Nevertheless, I still believe it's inevitable. I've felt that way for years now. I'm almost 76, so I may not make it to the party. Whether that's lucking out or missing out (on all the fun)...I leave for the gentle reader to decide.
DeleteNo endorsement, just pointing out hypocrisy, with a little hyperbole. Republicans and NRA do not allow weapons into their conventions. Obviously they know something that they are not telling the public. Unfortunately we are at the mercy of any court system controlled by dishonest ideologues. At least 3, and maybe 5 current Justices lied about their fealty to precedence and overturned Roe. With young members holding lifetime appointments our defense against tyranny is packing the Court or a Pelican Brief scenario, as amending the Constitution is no longer possible. We could try thoughts and prayers but it seems the Deity isn't listening.
DeletePeople can own rocket, launchers, bazookas, etc. They are considered destructive devices and are under the jurisdiction of federal law more difficult to acquire and more regulations about their use and transport
ReplyDeletecannot
DeleteBlah blah blah indeed. I just can't anymore. I hope my grandchild is homeschooled when he gets to kindergarten. I don't want him in the firing line.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were kids we would fight imaginary battles, Omaha Beach, Little Big Horn, whatever. Our weapons were sometimes plastic, sometimes imagined. Cap guns provided the sounds of the bullets or we vocalized the pows and bangs as we refought the battles of our ancestors. Our weapons were toys. Somewhere in America today, a responsible father, teaching gun safety to his child, warns that the rifle in is hands is not a toy. But the real weapons locked in his basement gun safe, the AR-15s he likes to shoot at the range, are in actuality, HIS toys. But the projectiles and the reports are not effects. Though he never uses those guns in anger, their existence in the realm of American insanity, is a cause of every gun death in our country. The gun nuts, their retarded characters, selfish to a fault, refusing to give up their guns, their adult toys, to save the lives of innocent Americans, is our national shame. Boys with their toys.
ReplyDelete"We have 100 people die in car wrecks every day and the daily death toll doesn’t radiate across the country. ...traffic fatalities are the price we willingly pay to zip around in our own private metal boxes..."
ReplyDeleteYes, cars are dangerous, and always have been, and there's a growing anti-car movement in this country, for a variety of reasons. But cars are also far, far more beneficial to individuals than guns are. Still, there's no misinterpreted amendment inadvertently suggesting that the wanton usage of automobiles shall not be infringed. Many, many laws and regulations have been established to limit the danger inherent in their operation, both for those operating them and for those trying to stay out of their way. Very simply keeping careful track of who's driving them is a start. (Obviously, it hasn't been an overly successful effort-- see "100 people die," above.) What makes sense to me is that guns, tools of very limited usefulness, be subjected to the type of rigorous regulation that the much more worthwhile automobiles are.
As noted above, if the right to bear arms could REALLY not legally be infringed, there would be a whole lot of even more pernicious weaponry readily available to terrorize everyone. It wasn't that all that long ago that even right-wingers understood that. But NRA campaign money and a woefully politicized Supreme Court managed to make the phrase "shall not be infringed" into a mantra, willfully ignoring the previously accepted "well-regulated" part.
Remember when the congressmen were the victims of a shooter as they practiced for a softball game ? Not even their fellow legislators could bring themselves to come out for some form of gun control. Any form of gun control will never happen in this country. I think my kids and grand kids are screwed in regards to this issue. What's it going to take to have some legislators to stand up and do what's right for the country? I'm certain it won't happen in my lifetime.
ReplyDelete