Sunday will mark 120 days since 26 people were slaughtered in a small Connecticut town. For a majority of the people in Congress, the number 26 appears to have little or no meaning, but a lot of them having been sweating out that 120 days. Shortly after the massacre, one of the cable news outlets presented a graph that showed that, while interest in gun control spikes after a mass shooting, after 120 days or so it goes back to normal levels. And while these “normal” levels are still plenty high, they’re not nearly high enough to get the gun fetishists and the NRA slaves to actually do something.
(I don’t know which is sadder: that there is an expiration date on concern following a mass shooting or that there have been so many of them that people are able to make graphs out of the data.)
I’ll admit that, even at this advanced age, I was naïve enough to believe that things would be different this time. It was hard to believe that a sitting member of Congress could get shot in the head—and that a judge and a 9-year-old girl could be murdered in the same attack—and the gun-control needle in Congress (and the White House) barely moved. Then a guy shoots up a crowded movie theater and again nothing. But this had to be different. These were first-graders, literally shot to pieces in their classrooms, less than two weeks before Christmas. No way Congress could ignore that.
It was no surprise that the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre came out with guns blazing. He’s like a modern-day Chauncey Gardiner, an idiot who spouts idiotic sayings. People with brains in their heads think, “There’s no way that anybody is going to believe that nonsense.” Meanwhile, legions of other idiots are nodding their heads in unison like stoners at a Grateful Dead concert.
But you can’t really blame LaPierre for stating that the only solution to gun violence is more guns. He’s beholden to the gun manufacturers and nut jobs like the Koch brothers who pump tens of millions of dollars into the NRA’s coffers every year. Members of Congress, however, have taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States and are supposed to represent their constituents.
You just knew that, right after the school shooting, the NRA would start tightening the vises on scrotums all over Capitol Hill. (However, that’s not that hard to do when there’s nothing inside the scrotums to provide any resistance to the vises.) Just like that, you had a steady stream of representatives and senators going on TV, spouting the same stupid things that the NRA brass was coming up with. I swear, if I had to interview one of those “lawmakers,” my only question would have been, “So, what does Wayne LaPierre’s junk taste like?”
Take, for instance, Georgia congressman Paul Broun, who stated (and I quote), “There are more people killed with baseball bats and hammers than are killed with guns.” This ridiculous notion has a shocking number of “Yeah, huh?!” co-signers who believe it to be true. In fact, the numbers aren’t even close.
According to FBI statistics, in 2011 in the United States, 8,583 people were murdered with guns. That same year, 496 were murdered with blunt objects, a category that includes baseball bats, hammers, hockey sticks, rocks, crowbars, statuettes and even electric guitars.
In fact, when it comes to murder, guns are used more than twice as often as all other methods combined, including knives, poison, bombs, fists, arson and strangulation.
In that same year, 606 people died from accidental gunshot wounds, while 18 (a stunningly high number!) died from accidents involving sports equipment and four were killed by nonpowered hand tools. (I recently wrote about how it would suck to die stupidly. How would you like to fit in the category of Accidental Death by Nonpowered Hand Tool?)
In his meager defense, Broun is known as one of the leading morons in Congress. He’s one of those anti-science guys who “knows” that the Earth is only 9,000 years old.
After four months, a few states have passed a few laws. But in the U.S. Congress, a place where the best and the brightest are supposed to look out for the best interests of the rest of us … nothing. No limits on completely unnecessary high-volume ammo magazines. No ban on military-style assault weapons. Not even a vote on universal background checks, which the NRA supported as recently as a decade ago and support for which hovers at around 90 percent of the American populace today.
(A pox on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who won’t even call for a vote on many of these things because he doesn’t think he can win. In his State of the Union Address, President Obama—in an obvious nod to realpolitik—said that the dead kids in Newtown at least deserved a vote. Now, they won’t even get that.)
I sincerely believe that if you lined up a group of kindergartners on the Capitol steps and then gunned them down on national TV, the reaction of some members of Congress would be, “Damn, now I have to use the side entrance so I don’t get blood on my shoes.”
This article appears in Apr 11-17, 2013.
Yea, let’s just ban everything. That should take care of the problem.
When was the last time congress passed any law with teeth? They are all watered down compromises. You can be certain that any issue of any importance whatsoever will be gridlocked until the weakest form of the law is passed a day late and a dollar short. A law on background checks, when it finally does pass, will be so weak and ineffectual and it will have zero impact on the amount of gun deaths in America. The real solution, to ban and confiscate all guns, will not happen until lawlessness gets so completely out of hand that a fascist dictator gains control of the government (with the help and approbation of the people) and unilaterally takes action to bring the lawlessness under control. It will take a Hitler-like charismatic dictator to accomplish it. Give it another hundred years or so. We will see if the cure is worse than the disease. But we are definitely headed in that direction. When people see a weak and powerless government, they vote for dictators who promise to get things done. This is the road we are traveling down every time congress fails to get the job done.
Not even a relevant question. Knee-jerk reactions to bad events generally make for bad law, and unintended consequences.
Mass shootings are extremely traumatic and make super news stories but around 30 people are killed in mass shootings per year in the U.S. Meanwhile, 32,000 per year are killed in car accidents. Which issue merits more attention?
The deaths caused by global warming due to carbon emitted in production newspaper articles and TV shows about the mass shootings (and the gun control proposals that follow) will probably exceed the number of actual deaths from the shootings themselves.
“According to FBI statistics, in 2011 in the United States, 8,583 people were murdered with guns.” This statistic made me think a bit about this topic differently than my usual anti gun, anti NRA rant. According to a variety of websites, but specifically this one from Wikkipedia, there were less US military ( total 8519) casualties in Afghanistan (2001-present) and Iraq (2003-present) combined than those above mentioned gun deaths at home. Granted many of those deaths occurred with bombs, roadside devices, suicide attacks etc. It is as though our country is engaged in a civil war. Like it or not, guns make these deaths easier. Just the other day, I read an account where a man with a knife, or box cutter stabbed/slashed 14 or so students on a small Texas campus. As of this date, I do not believe anyone died because of the attack.
Freedom is wonderful. I can recall the first time I rode a bike, and felt that wonderful feeling of freedom that I still enjoy daily 55 years later. Yet, to sound like a 5th grade teacher lecturing a social studies class, freedom comes with responsibility. The NRA and gun enthusiasts need to step up and act responsibly since we cannot prejudge or predict who is violently insane. The fact that there may not even be a congressional vote regarding legislation is insulting to the survivors of all senseless attacks. Their loved ones died in vain. The attacks are senseless, not hateful. Senseless because of mentally handicapped violence. It’s too bad that the senselessness doesn’t stop there.
On a separate note, Tom, you don’t need to stoop to locker room language/phrasiology to make a point well supported by facts. It’s not professional, and it undermines your argument. I am no prude, I love language with all it’s vulgarity and eloquence. However, when it is in the form of the written word in print, it has the tendency to compromise your otherwise good logic.
I sincerely believe that if you lined up a group of kindergartners on the Capitol steps and then gunned them down on national TV, the reaction of some members of Congress would be, “Damn, now I have to use the side entrance so I don’t get blood on my shoes.”
It’s enought to gag a maggot, that, unfortunately, that is a likely scenario. Hardly ever, does one find a modicum of sorrow from most of them about all the violent gun deaths that occur regularly.
I think the progressive pack is chasing the wrong suspect. This is a mental health issue…not a gun issue. In the 1970’s/1980’s mental health institutions were closed down because the experts felt that the mentally ill could be cured with drugs. Before that period mass murders were relatively rare. After that they are more common ( I’m talking about all-at-once murders like Newtown not sequential murders like in Chicago) . Gun ownership levels were higher before the 1970’s mainly because hunting was more widespread. It is pretty clear that , in some cases, the drugs for the mentally ill strategy doesn’t work. All of the notable mass murder incedents like Columbine, VaTech, Newtown, Tucson, Denver, etc involved people who were on, or recently got off, psychotropic drugs. If we are going to fix this problem, let’s at least focus on the real issue.
You managed to insult me twice in one column. I’m a life memberof the N.R.A., so I’m an idiot. I’m also a former stoner who’s been to more Dead concerts than I can count. Thus, I’m an idiot. Allow me to throw a wrench into the works by presenting a few of those nasty facts. Last week in Conn. they passed a whole slew of new gun control laws. Sadly, had these laws been in place last Dec. the tragic shooting would have occured all the same. But, those people feel better and after all, isn’t that all that matters? Symbolism over substance, the Left’s mantra.
Tom, here’s a fact for you: it appears you really know nothing about the NRA. They represent “gun owners” not the manufacturers. The manufacturers only advertise in their publications. Kinda like saying you are an owner of a strip club, since they advertise in your paper. Your nice little tirade was a bit short on facts and reality. I am tired of seeing the anti-gun herd parading the “poor victims” every chance they get. Try stopping the real nuts from getting the weapons in the first place. None of the new laws are directed in that direction only at law abiding citizens who prefer the right to protect themselves and/or to hunt. If you lived in the real world where law enforcement may show up within an hour or two of calling 911, you just might reconsider your position.
They used to represent gun owners. Now they represent the manufacturers.
They now represent manufacturers is a bogus argument. Of course this is an editorial opinion and you are entitled to say what you choose, facts be damned. You have the bully pulpit.
The NRA gets a fair amount of money from me every year, and I am not a manufacturer. I am the NRA and I vote.
It’s pretty damn simple, as I see it. The gun fetishists clearly care more about their weapons than they do about human beings. Most gun owners aren’t crazy, but there is a hard-core minority that worships weaponry above all else — and has a stranglehold on the United States Congress. All of us have an opportunity to change this in 2014, if we would only do it.
Uh… There are mentally challenged people who shouldn’t be on the streets. Unfortunately, they are because some credentialed people a few decades ago thought that psychotropic drugs would solve it all. They were wrong. These folks use guns, or whatever weapon is handy, to workout their problems. Both Laughner and Adam Lanza had fantasizes about driving a car at high speed into their victims. If guns weren’t available, they could have found an alternative.
So it is about the killers…. Not their killing tactics. Get the killers off the street and there will be less killing . It worked before…no reason to think it won’t work now.
Tom ,Tom, Tom, lining up kindergarteners on the capitol step and gunning them down, really, reading your articles reminds me of the story of the guy who is hitting his own head with a hammer………… My mother couldn’t believe you would write that during times such as these and wanted to see for herself, but of course I could hand her the paper because of all the scrotum squeezing analogies. Its not that I disagree with what you say its just, why so sophmoric, I guess you think you are funny.
There are over 30,000 gun deaths in America every year. Less than ONE PERCENT of them are from mass killings. I’m just saying.