America had another mass shooting this week.
Yet, again, it took place in a school. Seventeen children were slaughtered by a young, deranged guy with his legally-purchased AR-15 assault rifle.
This type of horrific incident occurs so often in recent years that the public response has become “Oh” instead of “Oh My God!”. We’ve become numb to such insanity, a Nation of shoulder-shruggers, a population of adults who don’t appear to give a shit. Our Nation should be ashamed of itself.
Our politicians, on both sides of the aisle, have developed a response which, in reality, just kicks the can down the street for future generations to deal with: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.”
How sincere they sound; how the parents of the massacre must be comforted by those empty words.
(This kind of atrocity happens so often in our country that political cartoonists have a drawer full of sketches at the ready for the next incident. What a shame that is.)
I know…it’s really not fair to blame the politicians…because we adults elect them. If we honestly cared about this huge problem, then we would, as a Nation, insist that our elected officials actually do something meaningful to stop the carnage.
“Now is not the time”…how many times have we heard our President and the NRA-supported Congressmen say this in response to overwhelming public support of limiting guns in our country?
I’m 70 years old. We didn’t have mass shootings in our K-12 schools when I was growing up. None…not a single one. The country didn’t experience mass shootings of any kind back in the 50’s.
Now, they are commonplace…hardly even news. Our problem seems to be snowballing: the rate at which public mass shootings occur has tripled since 2011. We’ve seen five of the ten worst mass shootings in modern U.S. history during the past 26 months.
Why?
These incidents of mass murder are not being carried out by deranged or pissed off individuals with brass knuckles, baseball bats, knives or garrotes. The killers are using guns, and more specifically semi-automatic weapons. Those are the kinds of pistols or rifles that can fire a round as fast as the murderer can pull the trigger. That’s how so many helpless victims can be brutalized in such a short period.
Weapons of this type were not generally owned by the public when I was a child. Probably some sportsmen had them, some G.I.’s who had returned from WWII, some criminals, etc. Certainly, the Average Joe didn’t have one in his home, and…absolutely…his teenage kid didn’t have one readily available.
Nowadays, we’ve got idiot parents allowing their children to handle and fire such weapons, like they’re toys, not killing instruments.
As a society, do we think this is cute? Or, more importantly, not harmful to these children?
So, we had killings and murders back when I was this age, but crazed idiots walking into buildings and spraying tens, if not hundreds, of strangers with hot lead just didn’t occur…because the technology wasn’t commonplace.
It was also a different world in the 1950’s in terms of culture. “Psychopath” was a very derogatory term, not something to be proud of. Murder has always been with us, of course, but wanton mayhem inflicted on innocent people…even the thought of such a thing…was beyond the pale. Motion pictures minimized gore, and there were no vigilante “heroes”. Bad guys always got theirs by the final act. “Ya’ got me!”, the villain would exclaim, as he dramatically dropped dead from a pistol shot by a hero cop.
Nowadays, machine-gun toting actors like Stallone, Seagal, The Rock, Donnie Wahlberg, and others star in blood-drenched action movies where even the good guys break the rules.
I recall an Arnold Schwartzeneggar movie from years ago which showed good guy Arnie brutally killing at least three dozen bad guys…during the friggin’ opening credits!
Our children play video games which realistically depict bodies being shot to smithereens by machine guns, heads being chopped off, lives erased willy-nilly, etc.
Doesn’t anyone in this Country think that this stuff desensitizes children to death and suffering? And, that possibly, a kid that get’s off on this type of entertainment might not want to try it out “for real”?
No other country in the world experiences the mass shooting horror that the United States does. Sure, there have been incidents in other countries, but not in the number and magnitude of the massacres that we seem to endure on a regular basis.
Why is this?
For one thing, there are a lot more guns in America than anywhere else. The United States has more guns than population; i.e. more than 100 guns per 100 people. According to the Congressional Research Service, in a study done ten years ago, there were approximately twice as many guns per capita in the United States as there were in 1968…about 300 million guns in total.
The United States has three times as many guns per capita as France, ten times as many as Russia, and almost twenty times as many guns per capita as the United Kingdom.
Let’s face it: we’re gun crazy.
And, worse, we allow young people to legally own them.
Most of our school mass shooting incidents have been perpetrated by young people. They’re usually unhappy current students, students that have recently been expelled, or former students who have ill feelings towards current students, teachers or administrators.
Young folks (under 20) are working their way through a hormone-charged portion of their lives. They get upset easily, argue with their parents a lot, feel restricted in their freedom, don’t like “rules”, suffer huge mood swings, get crushed in their first romantic endeavors, and many have suicidal thoughts. The often lash out at parents and friends. Hopelessness is commonplace among those with low self esteem or with bad home lives. And, bullying at school often compounds their uncomfortable slog through adolescence.
So, there are a lot of unhappy young people out there. And, in our country in particular, deadly weapons are easily available to such individuals. Their parents might have them, their friends might have them, and, if the unhappy child is over 18 years old, he can legally purchase a semi-automatic assault rifle in 48 states.
Guys like myself, being potentially readied to head off to Vietnam back in the day, trained with a killing weapon just like this.
This is the type of weapon that Nikolas Cruz used this past week to mow down scores of students at his former high school in Parkland, Florida. Fourteen students and three teachers died in that massacre.
In nine U.S. states, people under the age of 18 can legally purchase such a military-grade killing weapon with their parent’s permission; in Vermont, the age is 16.
WHY?
Why do we as a society allow young people to purchase or possess such weapons? Why would a kid barely older than puberty need to own a military-grade assault weapon?
I cannot think of a good answer, probably because there is none.
That any American citizen should have a military-grade assault weapon in his/her home is questionable to begin with, but…the Second Amendment gives our citizens the right to bear arms.
I’m OK with that; I own a gun for family protection.
But, it can reasonably be argued that the “arms” that the Founders were talking about were single-shot pistols and rifles; the weaponry of the age, and the type of weapon that the citizenry typically had for hunting and general protection.
Our first leaders did not anticipate weapons of mass carnage in the hands of regular citizens, and, certainly, not in the hands of adolescents.
Which brings me to the most salient point…should young people be allowed to purchase or possess such weapons? If they really need them, why not allow them to own hand-grenades?
The Founders didn’t anticipate them either. Are they “arms”?
Recognizing the hormone-driven period of adolescence, and the impaired judgment of young people generally, our society has established “maturity” bars for young people to climb before they can partake of some adult freedoms. I’m thinking of the purchase of cigarettes and alcohol, voting, ability to sign contracts, driving privileges, etc.
In California, to use an example, we have always restricted young people from driving automobiles until they’ve reached a reasonable age. Back when I was an adolescent, one could drive a motorcycle at age 14-1/2, and could begin driving a car at age 16. Our State experienced so much trouble with young drivers that our elected officials eventually raised the minimum age to operate a motor vehicle, limited the hours in which they could drive, and limited the ability of younger drivers to transport their friends while driving.
We’ve also limited their “Freedom of Speech” while driving…no cell phone use. This really pisses them off.
In other words, we learned by experience, and our new laws have saved many lives.
First of all, I think that we need to do the same thing with semi-automatic weapons in this Nation. Young people, maybe defined as under 20 years old, should not be allowed to purchase, possess or use semi-automatic weapons.
But, wait, “What about the Second Amendment!!” I can hear the National Rifle Association bullhorn already, and the politicians sucking up to them. It’s already happened this week, before the school children’s corpses were laid to rest.
Conservative radio-host/blowhard Rush Limbaugh’s answer to the problem: the teachers at our public schools should carry concealed weapons! (Yeah, that’s what we want…a bunch of teachers/would-be-cops spraying the crowded school corridors with hot lead, in the hopes of taking down a deranged guy with an assault rifle.
Yeah, great idea…and another drain on the school’s education budget.)
NRA: We can’t limit the Second Amendment!!!! Counter-argument: What about the First Amendment? This one give us the Freedom of Speech. It does, but according to the Supreme Court, it doesn’t give someone the right to scream “Fire!” at the top of their lungs in a crowded theater.
Some of our “rights” under the Constitution are not absolute, nor should they be, nor were they ever such. The Founders were reasonable men, not idiots. That’s why we have a Judiciary.
And, our society, hence our elected officials, should not allow the NRA to cow them over the seemingly absolute ideal of the Second Amendment. With freedom comes responsibility, and we, as a society, have the responsibility to protect our young people from themselves. We can’t blame politicians when we elect the sonofabitches.
Every citizen should enjoy all of our freedoms when they are of an age and maturity to handle the responsibility that goes with them.
Is “mental health” the villain here? In a way, yes…it’s mental immaturity. A very mature individual should be handling weapons that can kill with such ease, not a tantrum-throwing, pimply-faced adolescent. (Of course, are the 50 year-old guys wearing camos and flying Confederate flags from their pickup really…mature?)
Nevertheless, our Nation has seen that military-grade assault weapons, designed for no other reason than killing, should not be available to young people. It is time for something to be done about that…
…other than “Thoughts and Prayers”.
Secondly, we should make semi-automatic weapons of any type more difficult to purchase and possess. The military and police need them, but the average person, and even sporting hunters, don’t need killing weapons of this type.
I am reminded of a visit to Costa Rica many years ago. This is a country that has fully-embraced ecotourism as a feature of its economy.
In part to support that ideal, and also to minimize the cost of expensive infrastructure, the people of Costa Rica have taken positive steps to minimize automobile use. At that time, every citizen could own a vehicle, but the tax on the purchase (or importation) of an automobile into the country was 100 percent. If you wanted to own a $50,000 SUV, you paid that to the seller and another $50,000 to the government. Needless to say, most people utilize the country’s excellent public transportation system.
Here in the United States, we have disincentive taxes like that which are applied to cigarettes. Yes, it is legal to smoke the carcinogenic things, but our government makes it pretty expensive to do so. And, the money raised from the tax helps support anti-smoking advertisements, further discouraging the nasty habit.
We could do something like that with specific weapons that society determines to be “unhealthy”. For example, we could impose a 100 percent tax on the purchase of semi-automatic weapons, with the net proceeds (after program administration) going to government-sponsored gun buy-back programs. In other words, we would use gun owners money to begin to reduce the private, 300 million gun inventory of weapons in the United States.
Australia instituted a nation-wide gun buyback program, and the suicide rate plummeted.
It would still be legal (if you met age requirements and were vetted by law enforcement) to own semi-automatic weapons, but it would be more expensive to do so.
Thirdly, we might also want to require all handguns and rifles to be licensed, much like we do with motor vehicles, drivers, businesses, dogs, etc. If we were to do this, then the possession of a non-licensed gun or rifle would be a crime, subject to confiscation (like the RICO act) and criminal prosecution, if the matter is egregious (like someone with a hoard of unregistered weapons).
In this way, law enforcement would be more effective; if they happen upon a drug house, or gang headquarters, or even in a stop-and-frisk operation, any unlicensed weapons would be immediately confiscated and destroyed, further minimizing the gun inventory problem.
None of theses measures would impinge on the Second Amendment, any more than cigarette taxes, automobile licenses, alcohol taxes, business licenses, or dog licenses infringe on our citizens “pursuit of happiness”. They would be society taking reasonable steps to control a problem.
Part of that control would be the tracking of these weapons. If a tax must be paid upon the sale or transfer of a weapon, and the weapon’s ownership must be licensed, it would make it difficult for young people (under 20, and fully vetted by law enforcement) to obtain one.
And, finally, it goes without saying that allowing such a prohibited minor from using a friend’s or relative’s semi-automatic weapon would be a felony.
This all sounds draconian, but we have a public health emergency right now. Our citizens must be protected.
“Thoughts and prayers” won’t cut the mustard.
