Staring Down the Barrel of the Truth

Clearly America has reached the point at which she needs to look herself in the eye.  Look herself in the eye, take a collective deep breath and be honest with herself.  She needs to come to grips with the realities of gun violence and admit some simple truths.

A table of death at a gun show

                America is a nation that was born through the barrel of a gun.

                America expanded through the barrel of a gun (with the help of shifty treaties).

                America’s mythology is one that is based on the firearm.

                Americans used to be shocked and outraged when children were the victims of gun violence.

                Americans used to be shocked and outraged over mass shootings.

                The shooting of children has become so pervasive that the shock value has worn off.

                Mass shootings have become so pervasive that the shock value has worn off.

                Following a mass shooting politicians will harrumph and posture that something has to be done. 

                Some politicians will say we need more restrictive gun laws so that it isn't so easy to buy a gun.

                The National Rifle Association will say that restrictive gun laws won’t stop gun violence.  The NRA will then target the politicians that say we need more restrictive gun laws.

                The politicians who said we need restrictive gun laws will immediately fall into dead silence and skulk below the NRA radar.

                The National Rifle Association will say that we need MORE guns in circulation and then it will get out its checkbook.

                When the NRA gets out its checkbook politicians will propose legislation to relax gun restrictions.

      A week or so after a mass shooting something else will dominate the news cycle and the politicians will all breathe a sigh of relief and every sphincter on Capitol Hill will be loosened for having been taken off the gun violence hook.

                Those familiar NRA slogans, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” and “Even a hammer (or the household tool of your choice) is a weapon if someone wants to kill someone so lets outlaw hammers” are patent bullshit that insult the intelligence of any person with any thread of reason.

                                Guns make it easy and expedient for people to kill people; much more so than a hammer (or the household tool of your choice).  Or tell me, please tell me, when was the last time you heard of a drive by hammering? 

                Politicians are terrified of the National Rifle Association.

                When it comes to the issue of guns far too many politicians have parked their morals at the voting booth curtain or their own bank depository. In their heart of hearts some may actually believe that our gun laws are too lax and they might even admit that to the spouse on a vow of secrecy but they so like their jobs, or the money, or the power, or the prestige or all of the above that they will remain unrepentant whores to the NRA. 

                That other turd that the NRA drops about about how guns are safe in the hands of “law abiding citizens” is also a bunch of fucking hokum.  Everybody is a law abiding citizen up until the point that he hears strange voices, or has a few too many at the bar, or gets pissed off at the driver that cut him off, or the wife that cuckolded him or the boss that fired him, or the bully that bullied him.  And then he gets his law abiding hands on a gun and ceases to be a law abiding citizen.  It’s likely that the formerly law abiding citizen had no intention of murder when he bought his gun that supposedly “doesn't kill people.” 

                We Americans no longer really care anymore.  A mass shooting occurs or a 3 year old won’t celebrate his fourth Christmas because he was hit by a “stray bullet” (God I love that term), and there’s a national clucking and tsk-tsking and shaking of heads and cries of “horrible,” “terrible” and “tragic.”  And then before the corpses are even cold Americans go back to what’s REALLY important; you know, Dancing with the Stars, or the fortunes of the local football team, or some other fucking nonsense because all that shooting stuff is just too depressing. 

                We Americans don’t want to go onto Facebook or any other social media and debate the issues or challenge the Ted Nugents of the world because we don’t want to use social networking as an educational tool or a forum for debate.  We have more important things to post about; like our workouts, our gardens, a new pasta recipe, the cat’s hemorrhoids or some other twaddle.  And so because politics and issues of the day are too depressing or we say with chests thrust out that the muck of politics is beneath us, ideas will never be shared, minds will remain closed and stances uncompromising.  And so we can remain secure in not being challenged for our own ideas and continue to be well liked because we didn’t offend that “friend” five states away whom we’ve never met.  But hey I just PRed in my marathon. 

                There's a fair sized congregation of hoopleheads in America that promotes a twisted nationalistic vision of Christianity that somehow has placed the Shooter’s Bible cheek by jowl with the Holy Bible.  Otherwise we would never have been graced by that insipid slogan, “God, Guts and Guns made this country great.”  What would Jesus have fired? 

                The notion of rights has been horribly twisted.  The right to attend class, go to church, drive down the street or walk the sidewalks without being murdered or hit by a “stray” (God I love that term) bullet has been trumped by the right of the paranoid who’ve armed themselves to the teeth waiting for that intruder who will probably never show up; but they might just accidentally off the unfortunate spouse that comes home late and unannounced one night.  The right to feel reasonably safe from being shot is superseded by folks who see themselves as latter day Paul Reveres that need to have an arsenal in the event that we need another revolution – self-proclaimed patriots who've no more real knowledge of revolutionary America than they do quantum physics.

                The second amendment may very well be an 18th century anachronism that should be repealed but that will happen on the 12th of NEVER because repealing the 2nd amendment smacks of unpatriotic, pagan sacrilege.

                America is coming off the rails.  What more evidence do we need than the fact that the State of Georgia has passed a law allowing the carrying of firearms damn near anywhere including schools, churches and bars.  Bars for Chrissakes; because everyone knows that the only thing that mixes with that 3rd or 4th glass of Jack Daniels better than 7-Up is a loaded Glock.   

                The notion that it’s too difficult to restrict the flow of guns yet somehow easier to identify the criminally insane is an idea that in itself is utterly loony. 

                There is a ridiculous, blatant hypocrisy perpetrated by the NRA that says we need to keep guns out of the hands of the criminally insane who can, by the way, stroll into a gun show and walk out loaded for bear; or more likely for people.  Yet at the same time the NRA talks out of the other side of its face railing against the closing of loopholes that make it easy for the criminally insane to buy a gun at a gun show. 

                 And finally let’s face the most depressing and overriding truth of all.  The horse left the barn long, long ago and he’s ambling down the road towing a war wagon of guns.  Right now there’s no way to corral that horse and stop the madness because there’s no apparent will.  Oh sure there are some folks with the testicular fortitude to fight the fight, and some, like Michael Bloomberg even have deep pockets.  But for the most part many are too lazy, too apathetic and too fucking shiftless.  “It’s too hard, it’s too depressing, it’s too political. I don’t know enough and it’s too much work to learn and I’m too busy.”  And as for those that are in power and have influence?  They must be on the payroll of the NRA.  Why else would they side with the gun lobby and ignore the will of most Americans who favor more restrictive gun laws?  Because in the corporatocracy that is America the notion of government of, by and for the people can’t keep up with the race down the money trail.

If all of this seems like a rant well you’re right.  This post is fueled by anger.  It’s fueled by my anger and the anger and the anguish of a friend who spent her Memorial Day with her daughter at a memorial.  Not for a fallen soldier but for a fallen civilian; a friend of her daughter’s killed at the massacre at Isla Vista near the UCSB Campus.