Again. And Again...

Over the 4th of July Weekend, there were 17 mass shootings in the United States, for which 20 people were killed and 126 others injured.

The U.S. has now had as many mass shootings as days this year.

But no, I don't mean that the way you likely think.  I don't mean "so far."  I mean that there have been as many mass shootings already as there are days in the entire year.

There have already been 357 mass shootings in America.  And it's only July 10.  The year is barely half over.  But the mass shootings just keep rolling along.

Back in February, I wrote an article about mass shootings, which I ended with the sentence -- "And yes, I'll save this to post again next time.  And the time after..."

​So, I figure this is a good time for repeating it.  Again.

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Again...

                                             February 16, 2023

I haven’t written about the mass gun killing at Michigan State University until now.  In large part because it’s hard to know what else to say.  Just one more mass shooting that’s become even more common than your alarm clock going off every morning.  We’re now averaging 1-1/2 mass shootings every day this year.  There have been 71 mass shootings this year already – and we’re only in mid-February, just 46 days in.

(A mass shooting is when four or more people have been shot or killed, not including the shooter.  So, that keeps the ghastly number even lower.)

After each mass shooting horrific enough to make the national news (most, of course, go unmentioned, just business as usual), we’re always told by the gun corporation-own NRA terrorist organization and gun advocates, “Now is not the time to discuss gun safety.”  And of course “now” is not the time – the time is before the mass gun shooting took place.

And we’re told, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  But no, what’s correct is “Guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people.”

And then there’s the old chestnut – sending “Thoughts and prayers,” which by now should be trademark.  But the thing is, if sending “Thoughts and prayers” (tm) meant anything and made even the slightest difference, then far better would be to send thoughts and prayers that there weren’t any more mass shootings.  And I’m sure people have long done that, and it hasn’t had any effect. 

I’m at the point where debating the issue is meaningless.  I’m past that.  American society is past that.  The only argument from those against strict gun safety laws – or any gun safety laws – is that “It’s my right.  It’s the 2nd Amendment.  It’s in the Constitution.”  And sorry, that doesn’t cut it any longer. 

Lots of things have been in the Constitution that have been changed.  Slavery.  Women not having the right to vote.  They were unconscionable, the country has long-since realized it.  And the Constitution was changed.

Furthermore, that “right” has long-since been shown to have limits.  In most states, you need a license to get a gun.  And underage children can’t have a gun (except in Missouri…)  And if you’ve committed certain crimes, you can’t have a gun.  And you can’t own an automatic rifle.  Nor a cannon, or a missile launcher, which most definitely are “arms,” which is what the 2nd Amendment refers to. So, no, people can’t own any gun just because they insist it’s My Right.

Indeed, there are limits on all our rights.  Even free speech of the 1st Amendment.  You can't libel someone.  Or defame someone.  Or call "Fire!" in a crowded theater.  Or lie to commit fraud.

And for that matter, there are other rights that must coexist with the right to bear arms.  Like, as the Declaration of Independence states, that All Men have "the inalienable right" -- given by God -- to “Life…”  No, that's not in the Constitution, but it’s in the foundational document that made the United States and its Constitution possible.

Moreover, when our Founding Fathers wrote that 2nd Amendment about the right to bear arms they specifically said it must be “well-regulated.” 

But more to the point, when the Founding Fathers wrote about the right to bear arms, they lived in a word where it took a full minute to re-load a long rifle and get off a second shot.  Rather than 20 shots in a minute with a semi-automatic weapon.

People like to postulate what our Founding Fathers thought about what they wrote.  Well, honestly, I think the Founding Fathers would be aghast, outraged, sickened by how their original intent has been twisted and brought so much death and agony and hell to the country. 

And I think I’m on a whole lot firmer ground about what I think the Founding Fathers intended with the right to bear muskets and long rifles compared to what gun advocates – and even the courts – think.  Because the Founding Fathers didn’t just live in a different world when they wrote the Constitution (which permitted slavery and denied women the right to vote), they lived in a world where they would not recognize so much of life today.  And I don’t mean that they lived in a world where they wouldn’t recognize cars and airplanes and rocket ships and walking on the moon and computers and emails and faxes and television and movies and mobile phones and x-rays and open-heart surgery and refrigerators and drones. What I mean is –

-- the Founding Fathers lived in a world where they didn’t know electricity!  And indoor plumbing!  And zippers. 

Mass shootings occur on scale so much more gargantuan in the United States that all the rest of the world together.  It is a U.S. phenomenon.  It is a U.S. disgrace.  And of course it can be addressed.  And when there are 30,000 American lives lost to guns year after year after year after year – when to the rest of the world that number is microscopic by comparison – and we now have schoolchildren far too-regularly at risk when they should, instead, be at recess, then of course it should be addressed.

The 2nd Amendment is words on a very important piece of paper.  But we’re past the time when people can hide behind it, because “It’s in the Constitution” is their only defense.  There’s no other argument they have. 

(Even their cry about the 2nd Amendment being needed to protect us from government has no weight.  After all, if it comes to a battle against the government, the government has a whole lot bigger, more devastating guns that “us” do.  But also, there are historians who say that the 2nd Amendment was not even about protecting people from the government, but about planation owners wanting to protect themselves against slave uprisings.  I would suggest we’re long past that.)

“All it takes is a good guy with a gun,” the gun corporation-owned NRA tries to convince Americans with an ad slogan that's designed to sell its product not much more differently than "All it takes for a good party is a beer!"  And the jingle is demonstrably untrue and infantile.  Not only because we see it regularly disproven here from both sides of the equation, but even more because The rest of the world has managed really well without needing “a good guy with a gun” to protect them. 

​Indeed, if we're going with pithy slogans, what's more demonstrable is that all it takes to keep Americans overwhelmingly safer than 30,000 shooting deaths every year is a bad guy without a gun.

I'm past this time and time and time again.  And again.  And again.  Polls show that most of America is past this. The slogans are meaningless.  There are far too many burials.  Far too many schoolchildren have been killed. The "It's the 2nd Amendment" gambit is long empty if there's no substance and context behind it.  Laws do get changed.  The fact that "the 2nd Amendment" is an Amendment is proof that even the Constitution itself actually got changed for this!  But enough already.  If someone wants to argue that the only reason the keep gun laws as they are and ignore 30,000 gun deaths every year and 1-1/2 mass shooting every single day is because, "It's the 2nd Amendment," then we're now at the point where the burden is on them, we've reached the point where one can no longer just throw out a phrase by rote, without meaning supporting it, but must explain why laws can't and shouldn't be written that protect that "well-regulated" right -- a right given to a militia -- in a way that protects those 30,000 lost-lives a year and meets the realistic human needs of current society.

And of course it can be done.  It's been done throughout American history.  What is finally needed at long list is new laws, tough laws, meaningful laws and laws that allow for interpreting the Constitution properly, in way that brings it into the world as we now live.

Or, for goodness sake, bring it at least into a world that has electricity.  And indoor plumbing.  And zippers.

And yes, I'll save this to post again next time.  And the time after...