Uncomfortably Numb
If you are reading this, I am sure you are aware of the latest school shooting in Tennessee. Of course, this time was the dream scenario for social conservatives and their excessive need to keep fighting culture wars. The shooter identified as transgender. Of course, we should immediately ignore the overwhelming statistics that indicate that school shooters and/or mass murders are usually cisgender white males.
Six people perished in this shooting (not counting the shooter). Three of them were school children and three were adults working in the school. One of those adults was a substitute teacher. While conservatives will love the transgender part of the story, there are other parts of the story they are likely to gloss over. For one, it happened at a private Presbyterian school with maybe 200 students. For another, the shooter didn’t go through an unlocked side door.
Of course, we are just talking narratives at this point. The numbers on mass shootings are overwhelming. Every individual situation is different. In this case, you had a former student at the school that obviously had some sort of psychological trauma that motivated them to do this. No sane person does this. Naturally, this talking point will be exhausted. Just once it would be nice to hear people actually make suggestions of what to do about it rather than just land on easy platitudes.
I wish I could be angry about this. I wish I could be moved to tears by yet another seemingly tragic and preventable event. I wish I could have some hope that maybe another one of these in the news would spur on enough people to mobilize and do something about it. It won’t and they won’t. We’ll talk about door control. We’ll talk about arming teachers. We’ll talk about stationing at least one police officer on every campus in America.
On the one hand, you have the evil and horrible scourge that is transgender and LGTBQ+ rights and demands. The common conservative plank establishes the idea that anyone that is transgender is really just mentally ill. While that notion is disgusting and hateful, it also murders their own point. If someone that is transgender is truly mentally ill then why are they allowed to have a gun much less multiple guns?
We know what causes this. We have known since the very first prominent mass shooting event at a school before the turn of the 21st century. We knew at Columbine. We knew way back when the shooter at the UT bell tower terrorized the Austin community. We knew at Sandy Hook. We knew at Santa Fe and Uvalde. We knew at Newtown. We are the only country in the world that has these events on a regular basis. It’s a simple enough thinking exercise. How is our country different from the rest of the world?
At this point, no serious politician is talking about confiscating any guns. No serious politician is talking about repealing the second amendment. Those thoughts had occurred to me once or twice though. No one believes you could do that safely or that it would completely eliminate these events. We know better. We know that common sense gun control measures would reduce these events drastically without infringing on most individuals’ rights to own a firearm. Of course, we know that none of these things will happen. When you can’t laugh and can’t cry you are left numb. It certainly isn’t a comfortable feeling.
Data shows a visible connection between mass shootings and when Republicans ended the national assault weapons ban.
https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1640512111666253825
Also, just recently R Congress members replaced wearing an American flag pin on their jacket lapel with an AR-15 pin.
Apparently data does not penetrate a cult force field.
1Nick, I read your last comment on your “Illusion of Justice“ post concerning people who still paste Trumpf stickers on their cars (mostly big pickups). What came to my mind is how many of these same people also have a sticker of an assault rifle next to it. Mass murders using assault rifles started before trumpf ran for president, but I’m thinking the numbers of guns and assault rifles have grown since then, and the chances of banning them has diminished. The only certainty is that there will be another mass killing incident with an assault rifle soon.
2Exactly, G Foresight! The Congress needs to reinstate the assault weapons ban, so that the minority of us who aren’t capable of controlling their emotions. Texas began requiring drivers licenses in 1936 and we all survived. Why not have an assault weapons state and federal ban?
3This is not to challenge any proposals for gun control, but Michael Moore put a different angle on the problem in a column last week, “Guns don’t kill people, Americans kill people.” His point is that not only is America a nation awash in guns; we are also a nation awash in fear. Both the right-wing and the cable news industrial complex depend on fear to maintain their audience. Local news is pretty much Crime, Weather, and Sports, and if the weather is scary, all the better. Add to this fear of job loss, medical bills, and fear of “those people” and we end up bathed in stress hormones from childhood. That constant stress not only drives guns sales, it drives some among us to reach for a gun and lash out.
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelmoore/p/guns-dont-kill-people-americans-kill?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
4“Guns don’t kill people, Americans kill people.”
That’s part of the problem. We don’t care much if an American kills an American, but if a foreigner kills an American it’s front page news for days. As an example, the recent deaths of 2 Americans seeking medical treatment in Mexico.
5My position: own guns if you must, but do not take them off your property. If going to the range they must be locked in the trunk of your car.
6Ted, not Cruz @6, due to rabid coyotes and raccoons we do carry rifles and pistols on the ranch. But our weapons of choice are paint ball guns. Warns off the animals who are here with no evil intent other than lunch, especially the bears. It’s all good. We’d nevuh harm an animal unnecessarily. Rabid? Or like that roaming pack of Bundy aficionado morons who traipse through here between Idaho and Utah? They will receive 3 warning shots: paintball, rock salt, then lead. Rabid whether human or animal needs to be controlled for public safety.
Nick, you are not numb to gun safety issues as are those of us who enjoy Ms. JJ’s WMDBS. Concerned? Yes. Out of airspeed and ideas due to a Congress that cow tows to the NRA lobby? For certain.
FWIW Our Nevaduh lege is taking action. Lordy. We are a crazy state split blue/purple. From the crazy Michelle Fiore Bundyesque clown and other gun nuts in our politics, the lege is as sick of the violence as we are, too. We even have hopes our newly elected Republican gub won’t veto their efforts. Imagine that. An actual sane GOPer. Nevuh thought we’d say that. Albeit sample size one.
7Jane and PKM,
I think the comparison I would make on the utility of guns are to what we lovingly call BATs (Big Ass Trucks). They have a use for certain people. Some people need those trucks to haul things. They may need to drive off the road to get to certain work locations. So, it’s not as if those trucks shouldn’t be available.
The problem is when someone thinks that it would be cool to have that truck. They love the idea of needing a ladder to get into it and that they are bigger and badder than everyone else on the road. Invariably, they aren’t using it for work and they have no idea how to park it and operate it within the rules of the road.
Guns are the same. I have no doubt that some people absolutely need a firearm due to where they live or what they do as a job. The problem is when you find people that think it would be cool to own a gun. It’s not a toy. There are far more of those folks than the ones that actually need them.
8Jane & PIM at #7: yes, you’re using them on your ranch, your property. The deer population read thinking through hunting, and deer rifles are made for that. But no one needs a 9mm pistol to go shopping.
9It’s been the “Wild Wild West” in San Antonio and other Texas locales for a long time. Just watch the local news, there’s always at least several shooting incidents to be covered. Frickin insane.
Here’s a reasonably ‘good’ one that just happened [good in the sense that the bad guy bought the farm…].
Somebody had their vehicle stolen from home this afternoon, they had it equipped with a GPS tracker.
So they went after their stolen pickup, clear across town to the ‘bad’ section [hey, I used to shop right there sometimes when in the city, about 30 miles away]. They found their pickup, confronted the [assumed] thief, shots fired, thief dead. Hope that he didn’t bleed all over the owners upholstery.
Yeah, they should have called the cops, and maybe kept an eye on the vehicle first.
But nobody has any patience anymore, just blaze away [some nearby vehicles were damaged in the gunfire, could have been people].
I’ve used GPS trackers in my vehicles for years, even my tractor and big lawn mowers, thefts are a periodic problem in the South Texas boonies [and some of the perps are very skilled in their trade, often family groups].
Yeehaaa—
“Stolen vehicle owner tracks truck using Airtag before shooting, killing suspect on Southeast Side, police say” :
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2023/03/29/stolen-vehicle-owner-tracks-truck-using-airtag-before-shooting-killing-suspect-on-southeast-side-police-say/
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