It was not really a gun fight, just another crazed asshole named Brandon Hole blasting away at fellow workers, apparently at random. Eight died, many were wounded. As usual, police were looking for a motive—which often implies some kind of rational action. Well, it could be something like, “My package came late and you guys never apologized.”
Mass shootings carried out by crazy people are just a small part of the total. Violent gun deaths in the U.S. last year numbered about 20,000, with injuries approaching 40,000. These include mass shootings, cop shootings, gang shootings and community violence. Add to that about 24,000 yearly suicides involving firearms.
Those numbers, it seems, aren’t high enough to justify serious gun restrictions (or removal, per Australia). There are some 400,000,000 guns circulating in the Land of the Free. Try getting them. Yearly cancer deaths in the U.S. are predicted to be close to 609,000; Covid deaths the past year were at least 579,000. After a week of national news about cop shootings and Biden’s proposed band-aids, one thing is certain. Congress will not be moved. In their calculus of murder, a lot more people will have to die.
Gail Collins just wrote a good column summarizing the impossibilities of the situation. In it she quotes a Representative from Texas:
“The government is never going to know what weapons I own,” declaimed Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican. “Let me be clear about that, it’s not gonna happen. We have a God-given right to defend our families, defend our state, and defend ourselves against tyranny, and we will do that.”
“Yeah, blame God,” she concludes. One also notes that the Texas House just approved a bill allowing no-permit gun carrying. And these gun nuts are not just confined to Texas. They are all over Congress. People like Lindsey Graham, Steve Scalise, Lauren Bobert, and of course Joe Manchin should be voted out, along with most of the GOP.
But they won’t be—for one reason: A large proportion of Americans, inspired by decades of shoot-em-ups on movies and television and flagrant misinterpretations of the Second Amendment, are in love with their guns and will never give them up. They are the ultimate gun lobby.
They will not give up on guns or religion, neither of of those do I understand or even pretend to anymore, put simply people are whacked and only give a shit about themselves to all of our detriment! In my opinion anyway, not that it matters to anyone but me.
That “large proportion” of gun-loving Americans presumable against stricter gun restrictions numbers only 33% according to this weeks Politico-Morning Consult poll (https://thehill.com/homenews/news/548127-2-in-3-support-stricter-gun-control-laws-poll).
But that 33% minority is enough to prevent even more sensible restrictions. Why?? Primarily, it’s because, since each state has two Senators, roughly 2/3’s of the Senate represents only 1/3 of Americans. And which states do most of those gun lovers come from? You know the answer…those smaller states with disproportionate power in the Senate.
Point taken, but it’s more than the political skew that’s involved, Peter. It’s the intensity of the opposition. If you have 33% of the population ready to go to the wall for your cause, they will do anything possible to influence the vote. And I still stand by “a large proportion” because finally there is more than politics involved.
Oh sorry, didn’t mean to be anonymous with that comment.