I had to wait a couple of days to write about the Uvalde slaughter of children and teachers. I had to wait because I was so angry. Angry that, again, we are going through the same set of senseless deaths. Angry that this happened while they were still burying victims from Buffalo’s mass shooting at the TOPS grocery store. Thirty-five people have died in the last two weeks in mass shootings – two of them in Texas, which has gone out of its way to relax its gun laws in the past two years.
In the last couple of days, many words have been written, many of them good words pointing out what sensible people know is the problem in America; Charles Pierce summed it up well in a column in December when there was yet ANOTHER mass shooting in the U.S.
“In America, Life Isn’t Sacred—The Guns Are.“
He’s right. 400 million + guns in the United States. More guns than there are people. 45% of the world’s supply is in the hands of just 4% of the world’s population.
But according to certain people, guns are just hunky-dory.
It took a British reporter ( from a Murdoch-owned outlet, no less) to ask the question American reporters should be asking. “Why only in America?”
Why indeed?
Before anyone trots out the time-honored “whataboutisms” of Mexico, Somalia, or sub-Saharan Africa, let me stop you right there. This is about an apples-to-apples comparison of industrialized democracies. (Something theU.S. may not be much longer).
This does not need to happen, and the refusal of certain legislators to address the elephant that is in the room is entirely criminal and obscene,
I’ll keep shouting it till I am hoarse – GUNS ARE THE PROBLEM! Australia recognized that 26 years ago:
Now the GOP is doing gymnastics to explain to you how turning schools into prisons will “solve the problem.” So are lots of other whores for the NRA.
Here’s a news flash for them:
Fred’s right. And so is Mr. Pierce, who does righteous outrage better than anyone:
Fuck you and your adverbs, Governor. “Horrifically”? I have no doubt. “Incomprehensibly”? Give me a goddamn break, will you? What’s incomprehensible about it? You signed the permitless carry bill last September. People told you what could happen, and this is what they said. From the Texas Tribune:
“The permitless carry bill will cause more violence and loss,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, in a statement Wednesday. “Despite overwhelming support for common-sense gun violence prevention legislation like universal background checks, Texas Republicans, led by a cowardly governor, are more interested in groveling for the gun lobby’s attention than they are in preventing gun violence and honoring victims and survivors in El Paso and across Texas.”
There are too many damn guns in this country. There are too many damn guns in Texas. There are too many damn guns in Uvalde County. There are too many damn guns in the city of Uvalde. And, on Tuesday, there were too many damn guns on Old Carrizo Rd in Uvalde, Texas. And, on Tuesday, there were too damn many guns at 715 Old Carrizo Rd in Uvalde, Texas. And, on Tuesday, there were too damn many guns in the Robb Elementary School at 715 Old Carrizo Road in the city of Uvalde, in the county of Uvalde, in the state of Texas, in the United States of America, where there are too damn many guns.
It is too damn easy to get guns in this country. It is too damn easy to get guns in Texas. It is too damn easy to get guns in Uvalde County. It is too damn easy to get guns in the city of Uvalde. And, on Tuesday, it was too damn easy to get guns on Old Carrizo Rd in Uvalde, Texas. And, on Tuesday, it was too damn easy to get guns at 715 Old Carrizo Rd in Uvalde, Texas. And, on Tuesday, it was too damn easy to get guns in the Robb Elementary School at 715 Old Carrizo Road in the city of Uvalde, in the county of Uvalde, in the state of Texas, in the United States of America, where it is too damn easy to get guns.
Goddamn this country and its politicians and their adverbs. Goddamn them all to hell.
My sentiments exactly. The problem is obvious as several other nations recognized and dealt with it. Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway: All had a culture of gun ownership, and all tightened restrictions anyway. Their violence statistics now diverge sharply from those of the U.S.
Australia, like the United States, is a federalized former British colony that has long styled itself as a rugged, individualistic nation. Hunting and shooting are popular there. Unlike the U.S., though, Australia has a political system that is responsive to popular opinion. Its legislatures do not have filibuster-like rules that allow a minority of lawmakers to block legislation. Within two weeks of the Port Arthur massacre, the worst in modern Australian history, governments at the federal and state levels had agreed to ban semi-automatic and pump-action firearms. The federal government also introduced several other measures, including a buyback scheme to compensate owners of the newly banned firearms, a centralized registry of gun owners, and a public-education campaign about the new laws.
Now contrast that with the United States as Betty Cracker did yesterday:
The U.S. Senate as currently configured is the obstacle to a solution, as usual. Pick your existential crisis — voting rights, women’s bodily autonomy, police reform, LGBTQ equality, climate change, tax reform, gun safety, whatever: the U.S. Senate is the cracked saucer where desperately needed legislation drains away.
Every Senate Republican will oppose doing anything to stop the next monster who will use a battlefield weapon to mow down schoolchildren, grocery shoppers, concert goers, movie viewers, etc. At least one but probably two Democrats will help them make sure nothing is done.
According to PawPaw Blacklung, letting a simple majority in the Senate pass legislation is “total insanity,” but apparently ongoing intolerable carnage is just the price we have to pay to maintain the glory that is the fucking filibuster.
Goddamn, I hate these people. All of them who refuse to address this, for whatever reason. I despise them jointly and severally.
This is why nothing will get done. We know it, and more importantly, they know it. There is too much blood money out there – a debt that has to be paid to the NRA.
Knowing that we have a problem and knowing that a minority is entrenched in not solving it does not give the rest of us a reason to give up. Instead, we have to stay angry and make it more and more painful for guys like Mitt Romney to make league with an organization that supports domestic terrorism. ( Looking at you, NRA).
I’ll let Mr. Pierce close and explain why:
The story remains the people dead by gunfire at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. That will be true no matter what distractions are thrown up by the people who want to talk about anything other than the fact that there are too many damn guns in the United States of America. That will be true no matter what shiny objects are tossed in the media’s path. That even will be true when everybody scurries to the next mass shooting when it occurs, as it surely will. The story is the victims. The story always will be the victims.
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