American Violence: Guns and the Third Rail Saturday Political Soap Box 30

April 26th, 2014:  Yet another update as the gun violence problem in this nation continues to worsen instead of get better.  Here in Georgia they have passed the Guns Everywhere bill, passed by a Republican controlled legislature and gleefully signed by a Republican Governor, making it clear in a speech at the signing that this was a gift to the NRA.  Now we can have guns in bars, churches, schools, government buildings, even parts of airports.  The Stand Your White Ground law has been strengthened to potentially even include felons.  The state has gone too far, farther than any other state in the union, and I am still surrounded by people who would defend this madness.

Second Update: I am updating this post.  What I had to say on this subject remains the same so I'm re-posting this rather than try to recreate my thoughts and wind up in the same place.

The horrific events at a Connecticut elementary school are beyond my comprehension to absorb and understand.  The senseless attack involving the loss of so many young lives is mind numbing.  I don't want to fight or argue.  BUT we have to do something.  And that means a balanced approach that involves sensible gun control.  It's not the only thing, but you can't ignore it or leave it out of the equation.

Horrific, sick and saddening. Saw the Gabrielle Gifford campaign shooting on the show Newsroom the other day and it brought me to tears. Not just the awful loss of life that day, but that since that incident we have done  nothing, NOTHING to change anything.

And now it's happened again,  A mass shooting at a movie theatre.  Yes, I understand that the details of the story are in flux.  It's clear that the killer was some brand of lunatic - his motives and intent as yet or perhaps forever shrouded.  And the type of weaponry and injuries from bullets and shrapnel continue to evolve. But two things are clear, regardless of the shifting details - this was a disturbed individual, and the type of weaponry he had allowed him to kill more people in a short period of time.  So once again it pains me to say....nothing, NOTHING will change.

So what exactly is it that I'm hoping will change?

Gun violence in this country takes an enormous amount of lives.  Bob Herbert on The Rachel Maddow Show (ably substitute hosted by Melissa Harris-Perry) last night said that since the assassination of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, we have lost over a million people in this country to gun violence (includes incidents labeled as "gun accidents").  We are averaging three gun related deaths per hour in this country. I don't know about you, but I find these statistics very upsetting.

Watching Michael Moore's film Bowling for Columbine, I thought that that would solidify my view about gun control, help shore my feelings that that was the primary answer to gun violence in this country.  But the movie demonstrated something much more complicated than that.  After all, Canada also has an incredible number of guns, and yet they only have the fraction of the gun violence that we have.  So there's more than just a large number of guns causing the problem.

We have a sickness in this country, something in this culture that causes us to reach for guns in such a destructive way.  The primary driver is our frontier attitude of circle the wagons, our deeply embedded fear of the other.  We constantly fear that what we have will be taken from us.  For whatever reason, many of us have a quick, fierce temper in this country, and guns are often used to settle problems, or are brought out in the heat of the moment.

It is true that there are many, many very responsible gun owners in this country.  But it also undeniably true that irresponsible use of guns is rampant in this country.

So nothing changes because our country doesn't seem to evolve to a higher state of caring for each other, of not resorting to guns to settle disputes or dissipate anger.  We may actually be going backwards on this as our politics become more divided and hate filled.  And yes, I see no reason to indulge in false equivalencies.  At least for the last thirty to forty years, the vast majority of the violent rhetoric and action has come from the right.  I'm not absolving the left by any means. but we need to be aware that this is not balanced.

There was some hope in the wake of the Gabrielle Gifford shooting that our political rhetoric would clean up it's act.  But, after a brief period of mouthing platitudes, things went right back to the way they were.  Nothing changed.  And if you think the atmosphere is poisonous now, just wait for the next couple of months when we start getting the negativity super-charged by the deluge of Citizens United-fueled ads.  Baby, you ain't seen nothing yet!

But now we get to the third rail.  The NRA has this country by the cojones, and any kind of common sense gun control is choked off and shot dead even before it is aborne. My guess is, if I know my Facebook audience, it is the one thing that will cause the most squealing and screaming than any other issue I could bring up. 

And yet, something obviously needs to be done.  Gun show loopholes need to be closed, background checks need to be intensified, assault rifle legislation needs to be renewed.  There are many measures that we if we talked as reasonable people we could accomplish, and still preserve the rights of gun owners.

100 magazine clips.  My god.  If you use it for deer hunting, there won't be much left of the deer.  If you have it in your house, and you're responsible, it's not assembled.  If it's not assembled, the robber, the "other" you fear, is not going to give you the time to assemble it.  And odds are high that he will have all or part of it before you do.  If you think it's going to help you overthrow a tyrannical government - surprise!  Your problem is the other way - no matter what you do, their weaponry is going to exceed your weaponry.  You are much better off using the non-violent methods of Martin Luther King and Gandhi.

Guns may not kill people, as the cliche goes, but certainly people with 100 magazine clips can kill a whole lot more people.

I don't know if America can change.  I don't know what will wake us up to do something about this.  I can only pray and have faith that we do.

FIRST UPDATE:  Keep praying.

SECOND UPDATE:  Keep praying.  Particularly my fellow Georgians.  And stay out of bars.
And avoid Black Friday at Walmart.