IF GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE, THEN WHY NOT CARRY SILLY STRING?

Now that the Senate appears ready to pass a ‘gun control’ measure, it is unlikely there will be another for a generation.

“Well, we took bipartisan action regarding a crisis, and we have to give those measures time to work before we can logically pursue other options. Between enhanced mental health access and Red Flags, we have assuredly foreclosed on actions that would have taken the lives of schoolchildren. We’ve closed loopholes and raised the age for purchase of some firearms.”

(DOA at SCOTUS): new age restrictions, most Red Flag options.

Republicans coopt this issue before the 2022 Midterms. That’s the only reason it is on the table at all. A flock of new GOP members in the House and Senate will not hesitate to ‘tinker’ with the Law.

What we have is a band-aid treating collective insanity.

We have active shooter drills for 6-year-old kids in our public schools. We are teaching them that the chance is great enough that they will be shot dead at their desks, it is prudent to teach them to be quiet and hide.

In the service of pragmatism, we have normalized expectations that folks with guns are going to shoot up Elementary Schools. That’s insane. Mental Health is not the issue. Mental illness in this country overwhelmingly means Depression, Anxiety, Phobia and PTSD. Those folks get stigmatized being bunched in a group with child killers. I’m all for Mental Health. Studies of shooters find that they often don’t have Mental Health issues. How often do we hear that he did not have as prior record of homicidal mania?

Again, a smoke screen cloaking collective insanity. Killing first graders by the dozen is horrific but a few months later, not so bad. Certainly not as bad as $8 for gallon of gas. It is insane that there is a series of laws, constitutional clauses, procedures and practices with Judicial blessing that regularly produces small corpses. Look behind the curtain of this recent burst of gentil reasoning and there is the acceptance that these slaughters take place. The events are concrete, yet the means of prevention are amorphous and more breadcrumbs than meatloaf.

I remember a day when the usual GOP lecture was about how Rights meant Responsibilities. Now aggrandizing the Right is the Responsibility. Outcomes don’t matter. The behavior panders to a culture intoxicated with violence and where authority means control over the other guy but not you.

It is not dumbing down that is the problem. The problem is that fewer men grow up.