After another round of ‘prayers and condolences’ being offered by politicians regarding the massacre of school children and two teachers in Texas along with the accompanying media coverage of this tragic event, there are the usual “calls for action”. Of course, as we all know, nothing will change. There will be absolutely no change towards putting in place even the most commonsense gun laws. This, in spite of the fact, there is no other country in the industrialized world where it is possible for an 18-year-old kid to purchase two assault rifles.
I noticed yesterday when listening to Governor Abbott in Texas he referred to the weapons procured by the shooter as ‘long guns’ rather than ‘assault rifles.’ I assure you the use of this language is by design. In a previous post I referred to a book that I read during the down time with my knee, Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America, by Ryan Busse, who is a former executive for Kimber Firearms. The use of the term ‘long guns’ to refer to ‘assault rifles’ is part of the strategy by the NRA and their acolytes to make these types of weapons less controversial and thereby more acceptable.
Let’s not kid ourselves. AR-15 style ‘assault weapons’ and high-capacity magazines have no purpose other than to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. Lumping assault rifles together with ‘long guns’ is like lumping Ferraris together with my 2010 4-cycliner Ford Ranger pickup. They are two completely different things and have two completely different purposes. Long guns usually refer to hunting rifles, e.g., 30-06 deer rifle with a scope or a shotgun for bird hunting. No one hunts game or goes bird hunting with an assault rifle!!
Likewise, I use my pickup to haul stuff from Home Depot or take loads of junk to the dump. It is utilitarian by its very nature. No one in their right mind would pull up to Home Depot with their Ferrari, load it up with bags of gravel and soil and haul it home. I don’t ever recall seeing a Ferrari in my many trips to the dump. That is not what a Ferrari is designed for. No one in their right mind would argue that. So, the idea that you can lump assault rifles in the same category as long guns is pure bullshit and is simply meant to make something that is unacceptable in virtually every other industrialized country in the world palatable to the American public.
It is very clear that the current Republican politicians will not take any action or will continue to block any bills introduced by Democrats having to do with any type of gun control legislature. The solution, therefore, is to elect new politicians who will actually do something to curb the gun violence in this country. The majority of Americans, in poll after poll, support many commonsense gun-control measures. And yet, we as a country, continue to elect politicians who refuse to address this epidemic. One can only conclude that in spite of all of the prayers and condolences that are routinely offered after each of these incidents, reducing the epidemic of mass shootings in this country is not a sufficient enough concern to motivate people to elect politicians to address the issue.
It seems more important to many people to elect politicians who vow to restrict access to abortion, enact voter suppression laws, legislate against transgender and LGBT rights, fight against any effort to address climate change and place the blame for all of the ills in this country upon immigrants. As long as that is the case, we will continue to just offer prayers and condolences as more of our citizens are needlessly slaughtered. ‘We the people’ could solve this problem, but ‘we the people’ have chosen not to and believe there are other more pressing problems than the continued massacres of innocent children.
In the famous words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
This is my rifle, this is my gun. This one is for shooting, that one’s for fun. Or in Texas – their funny way of thinking – dick heads. At least those in government. Some friends living there excepted.