I’m done . After a lifetime of advocating for common sense gun reform, as a former NRA member who learned gun safety as a youth — I’m done with the negotiating, pleading, compromising.
Now, I am convinced that the only solution to this fascist gun madness is an Emmett Till moment. That was the young black boy abducted, tortured and lynched in 1955 Mississippi for allegedly offending a white woman. His mother insisted that there be an open casket so the world could see the brutality of his murder. It inspired the recent anti lynching law.
God forgive me but if my child were ever the victim of a high capacity magazine, semi-automatic weapon like the Texas kids that were mutilated beyond recognition requiring DNA samples to identify them — I too would demand an open casket funeral.
Machine guns have been federally regulated for 90 years to prevent mobsters from slaughtering each other but we can’t do the same to save our kids.
President Biden DID SOMETHING! POTUS just gave a powerful gun safety reform speech, Thank you, Mr. President, for fighting for “one of the most defining issues this November.”,
I fear I must disagree with you about this.
America is, sadly, a very different culture today. The American culture of Emmett Till’s time was horrified and appalled by brutality and gross physical abuse.
American culture today positively CELEBRATES blood, gore, and violence.
The deplorable voters who turned out in droves to elect Donald Trump in 2016 did so BECAUSE OF, not in spite of, the now-infamous “bus tapes”.
Americans today crave violence, gore, and brutality. Look at the promos for new videos, TV shows, movies, and similar material.
In my view, we should be going in the opposite direction. Our mainstream media should stop talking about these mass murderers and their victims. ANY media outlet that publishes the threats, live-streams, and manifestos of these shooters should be prosecuted under our existing obscenity laws.
These shooters are motivated, at least in part, by the desire for fame and celebrity. Today’s voracious 24-hour internet-fueled news cycle, coupled with its insatiable appetite for hysteria, fear, and violence, is free crack for these psychotics.
Today’s America would enthusiastically cheer Emmett Till’s murder — open casket and all.
The same deplorables were around in Emmett Till’s time too. After all, it was folks such as these who murdered him. The point is to shock the vast majority of reasonable and compassionate Americans.
I’m observing that the numbers are drastically different.
I disagree that “the vast majority” of Americans are “reasonable and compassionate” today. The evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.
More to the point: if the vast majority of Americans were reasonable and compassionate today, then the overall public support for today’s GOP would be in the single digits.
That is not the case.
I really wish you would have more faith in your country and fellow citizens!
I really wish my country and fellow citizens would give me more reason to have faith in it and them.
I heard one interview in which the reporter said not one of the Sandy Hook parents would consent to such an “Emmett Till” moment. I am waiting for an interview with visual artist and father of a son who was shot and killed at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, Manuel Oliver, who has been using his art against gun violence since that time. His is, perhaps, the most informed opinion on this subject.
There is a very good suggestion from another Sandy Hook parent however. He wants to see the CEOs of all the gun companies in front of Congress answering questions about how the explosion of assault weapons sales happened since the W Bush administration let the ban expire. The Watergate advice of follow the money is still valid and is something we do not really talk about in reference to gun violence. I believe that might be more productive than increasing our collective PTSD with pictures of children blown to pieces.
But, of course, I could be wrong.
PS: Repeal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which prohibits “civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition…”
Definitely follow the money.
I think a big problem is Democrats have a harder time squaring the contradictions between wanting tougher gun laws and those who would defund the police and DA elected to enforce fewer laws. There’s less of a tension between supporting a strong military that’s directed at threats abroad while being weak kneed about threats at home.
I think the framing that the GOP is supporting extremism that fuels terrorism is the way to go. And it will require a policing power sufficient to enforce against domestic terrorists and keep guns out of the hands of mass shooters, gang members, and common criminals alike. A big reason Clinton got the assault weapons ban is that he tied it to the Crime Bill which is now (rightly for the most part) maligned for incarcerating too many young men of color. So threading this needle between greater safety and security and the policing required to achieve it is much harder for Democrats.
I’m not sure it’s that much of a contradiction. Many countries like ours have fewer weapons all around – in the hands of either criminals or law enforcement.
Only collective moral outrage of the silent majority force meaningful gun law change.
I agree with this framing.
I think there is a more fundamental contradiction that civilized Americans can spotlight:
It is impossible to reconcile a society that believes it values human life with a society that sells TENS OF MILLIONS of lethal weapons a year — into a society that already has more than FOUR HUNDRED MILLION of these weapons.
Any person who claims to value human life and also opposes restrictions on guns should be loudly called out for this clear contradiction.
Republicans on the issue of life – Abortion is tantamount to murder, but the actual murder of children in school is just the price we pay for our freedoms, except of course for the freedom to make our own medical decisions.