We live in a wonderful but horribly fucked up country.
The U.S. offers the best quality of life and the best opportunity for people to reach their potential, and yet it is the most dangerous, wealthy country in the world.
It tops that category for one reason: lack of political will to impose reasonable gun-control laws.
I was shocked — shouldn’t have been but was — when I got our of bed this morning and saw this New York Times graphic.
The homicide rate in America is more than double that of the second highest-ranking wealthy country…Greenland?
In his morning report, Dave Leonhardt of The Times wrote: “If American gun violence is no longer surprising, it still is shocking. On an average day in the U.S., more than 35 people are murdered with a gun. No other affluent country in the world has a gun homicide rate nearly as high.”
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It is maddening that the vast majority of the public favors stricter gun-control laws, such as mandatory background checks and licensing, but intransigent, bought-and-paid-for Republican lawmakers at every level have succeeded in blocking the path to rational regulation.
It is maddening to see Gov. Greg Abbott, one of the biggest gun-rights advocates, out front in response to the Uvalde, TX, murders of 19 school children and two teachers.
Today, Abbott said his state does not need to adopt tougher gun laws because gun restriction is “not a real solution” to ending mass shootings. He regurgitated the now-rote, Republican line that the answer is improved school safety and better mental health care.
I guess that means every student gets a counselor, schools become fortresses and grudge-toting gun carriers fire away at brick walls and bullet-proof windows.
Abbott is one of many prominent Republicans who are certified stooges to the National Rifle Association. It’s so bad that Abbott and fellow Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz are (at this writing) still planning to attend the NRA’s annual convention this weekend in Houston, (along, naturally, with Donald Trump).
I don’t know how much money the NRA has contributed to Abbott’s campaigns, but The Washington Post reported today that 19 current or recent Republican senators, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Joni Ernst of Iowa, have each received at least $1 million in NRA campaign contributions over their careers, according to 2019 data from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
That the Republicans are in league with an organization that appears to be rotten to the core — as well as committed to the notion that mass shootings are collateral, Second-Amendment damage — is appalling and saddening.
So, while parents, other relatives and friends continue trying to come to grips with the fact that 19 children and two teachers are gone forever, the backslapping, handshaking and searching for the latest in gun firepower will go on, full tilt, this weekend in Houston.
God help us.
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Here’s another graphic from today’s (Thursday’s) New York Times morning report…
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Show me one of the mass shooters who was a member of the NRA. Doesn’t exist. The problem here is cultural. In the 50’s there were rifle clubs in the high schools and no one shot up the schools. In the 80’s I was driving around North Dakota with high powered rifles in a gun rack in my pick up and no one shot up the place. This guy was a liberal. Most mass shooters are, however, mental illness effects people of all ideologies. I agree with you however, we live in a sick society.
This guy was poor and unemployed. Where did he get $5,000.00 worth of weapons? That aside, we protect everything under the sun with firearms except some areas where nut groups like Moms Demand want these protections removed from the schools Anyhow, this reminds me that I need to update my membership to the NRA and my annual dues to Mill Creek.
Israel hasn’t had a terror attack on schools in 48 years. Perhaps we should see what they did to eliminate them.
Ah the conservative shows his true stripes, protect the unborn and let the children die, and by god we all should have guns.
Texas: Where they value embryos over living children
Out of 50 states:
50th in Baby wellness checks
50th in infant care
43rd in Maternal mortality
44th in school funding
46th in child hunger
The only people Texas cares about less than women………
Children
I’ve always believed fervently in the First Amendment. Tell me what you think so I know who you are. Just keep talking, John.
In the 2008 Heller decision, the Supremes (5-4) let their obvious political opinion shape the Second Amendment by finding an individual right to keep and bear arms despite the actual text of the Second Amendment. It is ironic that the Supremes found in the Constitution an “inherent right of self-defense” then as it now appears the Supremes will rule that a woman may not be able to control her own body. All of this stems from another 5-4 decision, namely Bush v Gore in 2000, which prepared the way for the folly of Iraq and Afghanistan, the worsening climate crisis, rampant gerrymandering, the evisceration of voting rights, the overturning of campaign finance regulations (Citizens United, 2010), and this week’s grieving parents, joined by so many others in the nation’s unnecessary epidemic of gun violence.
Until we stop defining this as Conservative v Liberal, nothing will be resolved. Sadly, I think we all know the answer to that.
I’m afraid we’re going to find out that law enforcement in this rural Texas area was not well prepared to handle the situation it confronted. I want to know more, first off, about what exactly transpired between the shooter and the officer he managed to get past at or near the school entrance.
In addition, The New York Times is reporting that “frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the building in the harrowing minutes after the gunman was seen entering” with one nearby woman shouting, “Go in there! Go in there!” The Times said some bystanders talked about going in themselves but ultimately did not.
And this…
“The first report of a gunman approaching the school came around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. By the time the 18-year-old high school dropout had been killed just after 1 p.m., he had shot dead 19 students and two teachers.”
It took an hour and a half to bring the guy down???
The BBC is reporting that first on the scene police and for an hour after kept parents away from the school and DID NOT go after the gunman. So we have military geared up “warriors” standing around while children are being killed, and I bet most are of the “good guy” with a gun advocates. Anyone supporting the NRA and being proud wears the blood of the children shot with a weapon of war.
I could not be a police officer for a variety of reasons, starting with the first requirement: You’ve got to be willing to put your life on the line instantaneously, any time, to protect the lives of others.
Not everyone in law enforcement has that level of commitment, and we may find courage to have been lacking on Tuesday. I hope we don’t, but it’s not looking good.
I think about the way we regulate cars–another deadly weapon–in relation to guns. You must go through steps, licensure, renewals, driver’s tests, vision tests, proof of residence, pay fees, etc. in order to be entrusted with a car. And no one is saying that their “right to drive” is being taken away. We agree that car safety is important.Yes it’s annoying to go to the DMV but it’s part of what we agree to do. It’s like a contract. And yet many people and animals still die from cars all the time. But we have traffic laws and processes that we all [mostly] abide by to keep ourselves and each other safe while hurtling through space in a 1+ ton machine. There is accountability, and there are steps and even barriers to go through that keep people from driving willy-nilly (although, most driving is pretty willy-nilly these days). When we permit people to own and use killing machines I don’t see why it would ever be a free-for-all. Especially when we already agree on certain other regulations for keeping people safe. I don’t think anyone would say that we “just need better mental health care” (WHICH WE DO NEED THAT TOO!! beside the point…) if there were no car rules and someone drove 100mph down a neighborhood street with an unlicensed car and smashed through people and houses. It’s not an exact analogy but it’s interesting to think about. The gun issue is very nuanced. Their “importance” to Americans especially points to a deep, entrenched FEAR in our culture–and the manipulation of that fear into a threat on your rights, and a form of “freedom” (trigger word!), to make some old white rich guys more money.
I think the car/gun analogy is a good way to look at it.
(You’re a good writer, Brooks. If I didn’t know better I might have thought you went to Rockhurst instead of St. Teresa’s…Remember Charlie’s teacher, the one who drilled his students in the “art” of the 11-sentence paragraph?