More mass murders, no answers
With each new mass murder, people say the same things: “There’s something different about this one.” That, “Maybe things will change,” because of it.
NOTHING EVER CHANGES. Nothing!
There will be national and even international media capturing the grief and funerals and thoughts and prayers and presidents with their wives and stale political arguments – then nobody will fix what caused us to be stunned by the specter of indiscriminate gunfire.
There are places in this country most Americans would have never heard of (Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., or Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.) if they’d not been devastated by mass murderers.
In each of those places, we’re shown the grief on the faces of the survivors, which is the direct manifestation of inaction, incompetence, and skillful political deceit.
Everybody knows how to solve the problem of gun violence. The solution always lies with those other people.
Not us, they say. Definitely not us.
After a week of national handwringing, the media moves on, while only the names of the places remain vaguely familiar.
The specific details of the mass murders at the Pulse Nightclub, the Tops Friendly Market, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Stoneman Douglas High School, Columbine High School, the Tree of Life Congregation, and most recently Robb Elementary School and on and on and on have faded, but the same old, familiar arguments were resurrected – then abandoned.
The folks on the right believe that all of the folks on the left want to do is take their guns away.
They should understand that many people on the left own guns, too. They don’t want their guns taken away from them, either. But they may be willing to agree to some forms of gun control.
A recent Politico/Morning Consult poll indicates that 88% of those surveyed strongly, or somewhat support requiring background checks on all gun sales.
In that same survey, 75% strongly or somewhat support creating a national database with information about each gun sale.
So, what’s wrong with a national database?
The folks on the right feel that such categorizations may lead to gun confiscation, and Big Brother looking over our shoulders.
I get that.
I don’t fear it, though. I understand why some people may feel as if the long arm of the U.S. government might snoop into our private lives.
But something must be done to alleviate the ever-growing number of people who feel obliged to act on their aggressions with gunfire.
This has been a decades-long impasse, with only lip service to show for it.
Only three countries on Earth have the right to bear arms in their constitutions.
Mexico, Guatemala, and, of course, the United States.
Yet, of those three, only the United States has no restrictions on those constitutional rights.
Of those three, the United States has far more mass murders.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is mindful that the predictably steady gun violence in this country is bleeding into his. He’s taking steps to try to head off the spillover.
In 2019, he made good on his campaign promise to ban the sale of more than 1,500 types of military-style assault weapons. And last week, in light of the two most recent mass murders in the United States, he introduced new legislation that will put a cap on buying, selling, transferring, or importing handguns.
It’s a bold move.
One that could help save lives.
One that might ignite a civil war in this country.
The National Rifle Association, through its outspoken CEO and executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, is quick to remind us that “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
The people of Uvalde, Texas, don’t believe any of that.
Nor should they.
When a mad gunman found he could breach the supposedly secure Robb Elementary School, there were “good guys with guns” heading to the scene.
They failed to stop the “bad guy with a gun” before he took the lives of 21 people.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.