How to NOT Stop Mass Shootings
The problem of gun violence, especially mass shootings, is not all that complicated. The solution for it has been figured out by every other industrialized nation on the planet. The US has CHOSEN to not solve it. Those reasons are also simple – power. As long as the gun culture has an outsized voice with the electorate, namely the Senate, nothing will happen. That doesn’t mean the answer is complicated, but money and power wont allow it. To avoid talking about the real solution to gun violence, politicians and the gun lobby repeat bullshit every time there is a mass shooting, which is now a weekly occurrence.
Let’s review said bullshit:
- Good guy with a gun – the most common, yet one of the most false. Almost no mass shootings are stopped by an armed citizen, and in fact, armed citizens are generally killed or wounded trying to help, like the security guard at the Tops Grocery in Buffalo New York a few weeks ago.
- An armed society is a polite society” – this one is as stupid as it sounds. Name me an Open Carry Texas member who is a polite member of society and I’ll show you a fictional character.
- More guns equals more safety – if that were true, we’d be the safest society on the planet. As it is, our gun violence death rate is 4 times that of industrialized nations.
- Crime decreased as we loosened gun laws – which equals, “I ate ice cream yesterday, then it rained. Eating ice cream causes rain.” Correlation does not equal causality, but I can say now that the states with looser gun laws have greater per capita gun deaths than those with strict gun laws.
- What about “shall not be infringed” do you not understand – which is one of the silliest arguments. All historic documents, including James Madison’s own notes, showed that the Founders were terrified of standing armies, (especially the British) and decided to defend the new US government with citizen militias under local authorities federalized during times of war. That history is well documented and easily studied for those who read past the NRA’s propaganda. In the early days, firearms were kept at home, but ammunition and gun powder were kept in local armories for safety. Our founding generation was not populated by idiots.
- Criminals don’t follow the law – again, an idiotic argument which supports the notion that, if this is true, we shouldn’t have stop signs, traffic lights, or speed limits. Laws aren’t written for people to obey, since responsible citizens do that. Laws are written to establish a framework of enforcement and punishment for those who don’t follow the law.
- We should harden our schools and have armed law enforcement guarding the schools – again a stupid argument. First, making every school in the nation a fortress is impossible. Second it doesn’t work. Case in point, just YESTERDAY, there were armed police at the school in Uvalde when the shooter got there. They shot at him, but he was wearing body armor and was returning fire with an AR-15. Even though there were armed officers at the school, he got in anyway, then killed 19 children and two teachers. The cops got him only after SWAT arrived and blew him away with comparable weapons to what he was using.
- We should arm the teachers – Ted Cruz made this idiotic statement many times including yesterday. This is the dumbest goddam suggestion of all. See number 7 above. If police couldn’t stop him, how the fuck is little Ms. Perrywinkle, the second grade arithmetic teacher two years out of college going to do it?
Ted Cruz, pull your head out of your ass.
About point #8—I can’t picture in my mind ANY of the teachers I ever had from kindergarten through high school packing heat in class and being able to use it effectively. The idea is ludicrous, but then again, most everything Cancun Ted says is ludicrous.
1Excellent piece, Nick.
2And while we’re talking about gun control, can we also discuss body armor? Why the hell should anyone in this country—except military forces while deployed and licensed law enforcement while on duty—have access to body armor? I’d like to hear ONE good, legitimate reason for allowing that.
Interesting that all these mass murders seem to be committed by young MALES. Truth is, young females are just as angst-driven, just as frustrated, just as subject to mental illness, and yet it is basically unheard of for a female to seek out a powerful weapon and take out their anger by killing vulnerable strangers. Why is that do you think?
3Abbott, Patrick and Phelan are on TV right now railing against the killer of young children, yet that lying POS will show up in Houston and cozy up with the real criminals in our society – the NRA. Y’all get out and vote for Beto and every other Democrat you can in November!!!
4“Ted Cruz, pull your head out of your ass.” IMO, this is the only mis-stating or mis-understanding of your treatise. This guy has a superior IQ and he knows exactly what he is saying and doing to get where he is today and likely to remain because he knows his audience voters.
5As I stated the other day, until he and enough of his audience suffer a personal family loss he ain’t change or be changed out.
On point. Just wanted to add the among the nations who have figured this out, there is more than one solution. Eliminating guns works( e.g. Australia), progressive licensing with government oversight works (France), and universal government training works (Switzerland). What doesn’t work is putting gun manufacturers in charge of government.
6I am so bloody tired of, “it isn’t the guns, its a mental health problem”. Given it is a mental health problem, but an attacker armed with a knife, an ax, or a club, isn’t going to inflect as much carnage, can likely be over powered, or would have to chase down every running victim.
The NRA is these whores cash cow. I would favor leaving the bodies lying where they fell, and force these hypocrites to visit the crime scene , Just like in post WWII making the population visit the death cams.
7As a teacher let me tell you exactly how that goes. I’m swat and I’m coming to stop a mass shooter. I see a kid with a gun and three coaches (giving into stereotypes) with a gun. What am I going to do? How do I know that one of those teachers didn’t go nuts? You might say common sense, but how can you expect common sense in a split second decision. You’re looking at more dead people. You see a teacher before SWAT gets there. How does he know who to shoot? Sure, maybe he can handle the gun but can he handle split second decision making on that level? Has he been trained for that?
8RE #3: The “University in California did a comprehensive study of school/mass/spree shooters of all ages & found that the common link between them ALL is a vehement hatred of women (80% had a history of domestic violence). Most killed a female relative/girlfriend/wife.”
https://twitter.com/GeauxGabrielle/status/1529221838261338112
9RE: 6: Corrected typo:
“…Most killed a female relative/girlfriend/wife immediately prior to the event.”
https://twitter.com/GeauxGabrielle/status/1529221838261338112
10More on number eight tomorrow.
11Who wrote this? I’m confused.
12Nick or the by line says El Jefe.
I was pleased to see El Jefe.
Looks like one “cause” was overlooked….
Texas Republican and ex-TFG “physician” — “Ronny Jackson says it’s ‘unfortunate’ that the media is going to focus on guns, since the real cause of school shootings is rap music and video games.”
https://hillreporter.com/rep-ronny-jackson-its-unfortunate-guns-are-being-blamed-for-violence-when-video-games-and-rap-are-the-real-cause-video-132240
13OK, here goes!
1. The NRA is having big money troubles. It is making them sweat. Their existence right now is so frail thta they would go down the tube if someone somewhere were able to pull their damn business license. This bunch used to be located on 14th Street in D.C. but moved from there because they said the neighborhood was too dangerous and over-run with weapons and pwople who shoot them. They damped to a very modern glass building in Fairfax County and once again they did not really feel safe. They should just look in a mirror to find the cause.
2. The Senate and whoever else will not do a damn ting about assault wepons is actually showing that they have no cojones at all. What they are actually doing is supporting a type of birth control. The more innocent folks killed by some whack job with weapons thet shouldn’t have .the better.
3. Have you noticed how modern schools are now often being built like shopping centers: big entrances usually right into a central hall. Its so easy to crash a vehicle through the big bold front door because you can pull right up to the building. This has been the way of it in Fairfax County, Virginia. All the new high schools especially are drive-ins. The older elementary schools like just down the street from me are settled on side streets with the “Main” entrance located more toward the rear on one side. This elementary school has a window so folks in the office can look out and see who’s calling and THEN AUTOMATICALLY UNLOCK THE DOOR FROM A BUTTON IN THE OFFICE. Or notify the cops.
AND BRAVO BETO!! The asshats who run Texas need one herlluva spanking – in public so everyone can see them sobbing and begging for mercy.
14“An armed society is a polite society.”
The next time someone tells you that, point out they are quoting a piece of science fiction.
Yes, that’s from “Beyond This Horizon” by Robert Heinlein.
15Excellent piece, El Jefe. And I, too, wondered how anyone other than police and military can buy body armor – though I bought a full set for a son-in-law in Afghanistan (he made it home, btw).
As for arming teachers, the ones I know worry about securing a weapon away from little hands, getting overpowered by a larger angry student who is then armed, and that’s even before (as Nick points out) knowing when to shoot and at whom!
16On arming teachers:
https://www.stonekettle.com/2018/03/bang-bang-crazy-part-13-stand-and-teach.html
But in fact the whole series of 14 posts deserves close reading.
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