As of this writing, at least 59 people are dead and over 500 people are wounded in the worst sole gunman mass shooting in modern American History. The previous record of 49 dead was the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando last year. The record before Pulse was held by the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 with 33 killed. Then there was Newtown. 28 were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 20 were children aged 6 and 7.
The video linked above is an excerpt from the PBS Frontline documentary on the aftermath of Newtown. It details how Wayne LaPierre and the NRA turned this tragedy into a legislative victory. It details how gun manufacturers made money on increased firearm sales. La Pierre famously stated, the answer is easy enough. Buy more guns. Buy Bigger guns. Buy Bigger guns that can be converted into automatic weapons. And make sure to legalize silencers too. Wayne states, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away … or a minute away?”.
So here we are again. I've been watching the tragic aftermaths of gun violence since 1963. The only thing that has changed since those "Four Dark Days" after Dallas, is how we have ceased to be truly shocked. Our collective reaction in 2017 seems more and more a confirmation of what Stalin said, "One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic." Certainly, there is no real metric for the proper levels of grief individually or collectively after Las Vegas or any other tragedy of our time. But given the endless lunatic newsreel of our times, we are certainly not shocked.
We pray for the victims and their survivors. We never ever satisfactorily explain why a human being would do something like this to other human beings. We can be listening to music at a concert, attending a movie, or simply attending first grade. There once was a time where no one could expect that something hideous might happen. With increasing frequency it does.
THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN
Though there have been horrible incidents scattered throughout our history, it was not until 1966 that these types of murders entered our consciousness. Charles "Texas Tower" Whitman boarded an elevator in the University of Texas Tower with a cache of weapons, intent on deadly mayhem. From more than 300 feet above: Whitman shot victims on campus and nearby, a pregnant woman, shot in the belly; her boyfriend, shot in the neck; a teenager, shot in the face. Seventeen people died that day, and more than 30 were wounded. Like the hundreds of victims of Stephen Paddock, Whitman’s victims were confused, defenseless sitting ducks. Police scrambled to find where the shots were coming from.
Can anybody imagine how much more difficult a time law enforcement would have had if the Republican leadership had actually passed a silencer bill? Like Whitman, Paddock carried his 17 weapons to a high perch, positioning them to achieve maximum carnage. He shot into a crowd of 22,000 people. And as a result of his evil, we again have orphans and widows, and parents without children.
In the aftermath of Las Vegas, the Washington Post reported a stunning statistic. Over the 50 years prior to Charles Whitman’s rampage, "there were 25 mass public shootings, defined as the killing of four or more people in a public place without a connection to drug deals, gang disputes or other underlying criminal motives." We are now at more than 150. And Counting. Echoing an earlier point, the reporters covering Charles Whitman in 1966 were horrified. Today the coverage bears the unmistakable tone that we have all been here before.
ON AND ON AND ON
Bobby Kennedy knew what was heading down the tracks for him when he said this in 1968. "The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on."
Perhaps we as a nation have given up and resigned ourselves to this. I caught myself saying that hours ago. Perhaps it was the McDonald's tragedy in 1984 that made us cynical. Perhaps it was the Luby's in Kileen in 1991. Perhaps it was the other assassinations and assassination attempts we have witnessed, and the smaller slaughters we read of every day. Suicides, Domestic Homicides, gang bangers in our cities, make us numb and callous, after which our collective fatigue kicks in.
It's been 49 years since RFK said these words...."Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and ammunition they desire."
One quote makes one wonder if Robert Kennedy somehow predicted the age of Trump. "Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.....Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear; violence breeds violence...."
CONCLUSION
One of the most frightening things I've experienced was the reaction of my neighbors in Arizona after the Gabby Giffords shooting. Few cared about the families who had to live with the aftermath of the senseless violence of some nutjob forever. The main concern was that they have the right to buy any firearm for any reason. I'm still waiting for Obama to lead a squad of ATF agents to clean out individual gun lockers in Northern Arizona demonstrating "the tyranny of government", as they warned.
But yet another individual held 22,000 souls in the throes of his brand of tyranny because he procured a stockpile of high-powered rifles and used them to shoot people. Somehow that is OK in the most armed region of America. I admit to being profoundly scared of the messages I received the last time I tentatively tried to speak up. I never imagined simply supporting the renewal of a twenty-year-old assault weapons ban would be equated to trying to take away everybody's guns. The threat of being subject to a "Second Amendment Solution", certainly limits our exercise of other portions of our Bill of Rights.
When someone foreign attacks us, we take steps to assure it doesn’t happen again. But when an average-looking white American male slaughters other Americans, we are told there’s nothing we can do except buy an M-16 or consult Jesus Christ. In Tucson and Orlando, Aurora, and San Bernardino, the murderers used automatic or semiautomatic rifles. These are not weapons for self-defense or sport. They are weapons designed to create a large body count in a limited period of time. Why is that remotely OK?
In June of last year, the NRA fought to make sure people on the no-fly list could own a dangerous weapon. Only politicians who vote with the NRA, think it is common sense that "just a guy" should be able to buy 17 AK-47's. A number of the NRA's acolytes, from the unfortunate White House Press Secretary to the equally unfortunate Republican leaders of the Congress, assert it's too soon to discuss gun legislation. For these leaders, there will never be a good time.
Despite the propaganda promulgated by the gun lobby, there is not much disagreement about the steps we could take to address gun crime. The vast majority of Americans do not oppose universal background checks, permitting requirements for ownership and bans on profoundly dangerous kinds of weapons and ammunition. The gun lobby and the loud vocal minority it has created make the issue seem like more of a hot button than it is.
President Trump spoke of offering prayers for the Las Vegas victims. Though I appreciate his pro forma words in support of law enforcement officers if he really cared he would take steps to help officers stay alive and do their jobs. After all, in February, he signed a bill that made it easier for the severely mentally ill to buy guns.
Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and the other NRA supporters on the Hill have sent their thoughts and their prayers. So have Wayne La Pierre and the staff of the NRA. God knows they are lying through their teeth. Not a single one of them cares if you or your spouse or your parents or your kids get offed by some crazy guy with a gun tomorrow. They don't. They simply don't.
Back in the days when the NRA used the star power of a failing and declining Charlton Heston to advance their cause, he used to mutter, as senility crept in, the famous phrase:. "From my cold dead hands." Was he really referring to his "cold, dead, hands "? Or ours?
MANY BLESSINGS
NOEL
