When I woke up yesterday and heard that there had been another mass shooting, this time in California, there was something I instantly knew would be true.
I knew nobody would do anything about it. I also strongly suspected nobody would even suggest doing anything about it. Sadly, I was right on both counts.
Nobody is suggesting we actually enact sane gun control. Nobody is even suggesting we expand background checks for anyone who wants to buy a weapon, or that we make guns harder to get for the mentally disturbed. Gavin Newsom, the matinee-idol politician just elected governor of California, said “We cannot allow this to be normalized.”
Guess what? This form of mass murder has been normalized! That happened soon after the Sandy Hook shooting six years ago, when 20 six and seven-year-old children were murdered in their classrooms, their tiny heads exploded by high-powered bullets.
Six adults also died before the shooter killed himself, as most of these cowards do including the latest one. After Sandy Hook, President Obama tried his hardest to at least get Congress to expand background checks. Nothing happened of course, and we might as well face the reason why. The National Rifle Association, and perhaps some other irrational pro-gun fanatics, owns our politicians. They contribute to their campaigns, and threaten to defeat them if they do anything to limit the ability of anyone to get all the murder weapons they want.
So nothing will happen. You probably aren’t used to hearing the facts put as starkly as this, but you need to. We value our guns more than we do our loved ones’ lives.
I am fully aware, of course, that millions believe they need guns for self-defense, either against burglars or against the mythical black helicopters sent by the United Nations to destroy our freedoms, or whatever the current right-wing fantasy is.
Well, yes. There are a few actual cases of people using their guns to kill bad guys. There are, however, even more cases of gun-toting homeowners who accidentally shot a family member or themselves in response to real or imagined danger.
There are cases like that of Theodore Wafer. Five years ago this month, a disoriented and intoxicated teenage girl banged on his front door in the wee hours, evidently trying to get help after a car accident. You might think the thing to do would be to call 911.
Wafer thought the thing to do was blow her away with a shotgun. Oh, he did say he was sorry later, but is now serving thirty years in prison.
One impetuous moment with a gun; two lives ruined. Last year, at least 15,549 people died by gun violence in this country. When you add in the suicides, the total is more than double. You will sometimes hear it said that if we enact tough gun control laws, the good guys would lose their guns and the bad guys still have theirs.
Japan, which has a little over one-third of our population, has very strict gun control laws. Nevertheless, there are still murders committed with guns in Japan.
Want to guess how many? Last year, there were three. Not three hundred, not three thousand. Three. We evidently think 15,000 needless deaths are worth it. Yesterday, I heard a reporter on TV say this was the first mass murder in this country … in twelve days. There will be another soon, and another. Someday, maybe we will care enough to do something.
My guess is that will be the day after a gunman goes into a daycare center where the grandchildren of Congressmen are. In the meantime, I suggest you don’t allow any guns in your homes, and vote against anyone who takes any money from the gun lobby.
That’s the least you can do.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
