Two mass shootings in
the space of 24 hours.
You want to see
crass, callous and devoid of humanity. Try this: “GOP Lawmaker Blames Obama for
Mass Shootings”
Ohio state Rep. Candice Keller (R) blamed the mass murders
in Dayton over the weekend on gay marriage, recreational marijuana, video games
and former President Barack Obama among other things, WBNS reports.
The face of self-serving
political drivel
Keller began
her post by saying “liberals start the blame game” after every mass shooting
and “why not place the blame where it belongs?”
Apparently it’s all the fault (like everything else in Trump’s America)
of a President who has been out of office 2 ½ years. Of course, these remarks followed the shootings in El Paso
and Dayton, both of which were committed by persons far more in tune with Ms.
Keller than Barack Obama.
This waste of
flesh has blamed others, including “Drag Queens” (yep!) for most social ills caused by
the current administration. On the other
hand, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, declared: “I don’t think
it’s fair to lay this at the feet of the president.” Ok, now I get it. It
depends on who’s the President. Silly me.
Her President’s
rather perfunctory remarks are, to say the least a little puzzling and a lot
mawkish. While his initial post shooting Tweet was appropriate, if minimalist, a subsequent effort
produced a more Trumpish effort, suggesting stronger background checks but tacitly
placating his NRA masters by omitting any comment regarding automatic and
assault weapons, which were involved in these and other high fatality mass
shootings.
“Republicans
and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps
marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. We must
have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!”
Let’s parse this a bit. Background checks already exist. Could they be better? Surely. However, gun
shows (unmentioned) offer a gaping loophole, since most states don’t require
background checks for firearms sold or traded at gun shows by private
individuals. Federal law requires background checks on guns sold by federally
licensed (FFL) dealers only. Weird, huh? Ask yourself where you’d shop if you
wanted to amass automatic weapons with minimum notice.
Secondarily,
the tie-in he mentions to immigration reform is relatively meaningless, since
the issue here is high fire rate guns, and their availability. The two recent
atrocities were accomplished by native born white males, So was Stoneybrook ,
so was Columbine, so was Aurora, and so was the granddaddy of them all, Las
Vegas..
Finally, and perhaps most disappointing,
but not uncharacteristic, is the ubiquitous Trump superlative, (GREAT) used
meaninglessly or at least inappropriately, in this context while dealing with
tragedy.
What did Mr.
Trump do then? He went to play golf. But wait, what did he tell us as candidate Trump?
"I would not be a president who took vacations. I would
not be a president that takes time off.”
“We pay for Obama's travel so he can fundraise millions so
Democrats can run on lies. Then we pay for his golf.”
“Can you believe that, with all of the problems and
difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf? Worse
than Carter.” (Jimmy Carter rarely golfed, preferring to fly fish at Camp David
on working weekends, but Trump either didn’t know or care)
Now, reality check before returning to gun issues:
Trump golf
costs now exceed $110 Million — This is more than the GAO estimate for all Of
Obama’s Travel! (Note this is only golf for Trump and amassed in 2 ½ years as opposed to
8!!)
A Conservative group, Judicial Watch, once criticized Obama for
spending $106 million for travel over his two full terms. Trump’s golf tab has surpassed
that in just 30 months. And yet….Republican tunnel vision?
So, what was
Barack Obama’s reaction in a similar situation? He didn’t tweet. He spoke to the
nation, pausing to wipe tears several times. He spoke as a parent and a compassionate
man. He visited a vigil at Stony Brook, hugged bereaved parents, issued a proclamation
ordering flags at half-staff. And, as he paused twice during the address to compose
himself, he expressed "enormous sympathy for families
that are affected." Gosh I miss the man!
By comparison, Alex
Jones, conspiracy theorist, certifiable lunatic and radio talk-show host in
Austin, Texas, had as his guest the morning of the shooting, as chance would
have it, Donald Trump. Jones had praised Trump, claiming that ninety per cent
of his listeners were Trump supporters, and Trump had returned the favor,
saying, “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.” This is the same
Alex Jones who then claimed the “No one really died at Newtown”, and that, “Like
other mass shootings, staged by the government”, in Newtown, Connecticut, and
elsewhere, this was a “false flag” operation." If we measure an individual by
the company they keep, then this is sadly indicative of the real Donald Trump.
The “rest of
the story” here is that for years after the Stoneybrook shootings, bereaved
parents were dogged, physically threatened, even forced to relocate, by gullible
persons egged on by Jones and his “Info Wars” listeners until Jones, facing
massive civil suits, at last acknowledged the falsehood of his entire fake news
operation and, in great measure, his own mental illness.”
There have been
school shootings in the United States documented since the 1840s. From 1900 through
1949, 56 such incidents were recorded (note this is school shootings
only, there have been many more mass shootings.) In these 56 incidents, 41 individuals
were killed, I almost said “only” 41, but to the families of the dead even though
they are unaware of this essay, that would be insulting. Sadly, there have been
more deadly and more frequent incidents since.
Two of these alone, Sandy Hook
and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, resulted in 45 deaths and many more injuries.
The deadly difference of course is automatic weapons. In fact, of the 25 most
deadly mass shootings in US history, all but one involved the use of automatic
or semi-automatic handguns and assault rifles. Of the ten with the most
fatalities, all perpetrators were males and legally in the USA, nine were native
born US citizens, while one was a South Korean exchange student (Va Tech.) In
these shootings alone, nine involved massive use of automatic weapons, handguns
and long guns. The one exception was former Marine, Charles Whitman, who, after
killing his wife and mother climbed up the bell tower at UT Austin with three
rifles, four pistols and a sawed-off shotgun. He killed 19 by sniping until he
was shot by law enforcement. Like far
too many of these perpetrators, Whitman had shown obvious signs of mental disturbance
well before his fatal actions.
The
same emotional disturbance flags were present at Stoneman Douglas and
Stoneybrook and, in fact, nine of the ten most horrific shootings in our
history. Most of the perpetrators should never have been allowed to own
firearms, or at least, have access to high fire automatic weapons. A valid
background check would have disqualified at least 7 of them from weapons ownership.
What do “objective experts” (excluding
the NRA, which is neither) believe are at the roots of these incidents?
There have been opinions that several possible factors may
work together to create a fertile environment for mass murder in the United
States.
Most commonly suggested include:
(The first is of a principal concern, since the first
prerequisite for mass gun violence is a weapon, and an automatic one.)
·
Higher accessibility and ownership of guns. The
US has the highest per-capita gun ownership in the world with 120.5 firearms
per 100 people; the second highest is Yemen with 52.8 firearms per 100 people.
This, as a standalone statistic, is less impressive than it’s ranking. Every
male in Switzerland is issued a military weapon. There are 28 weapons for every
100 Swiss, but proportionally far, far, fewer shootings. The big NRA lie is to
scare responsible gun owners with the bogey man scare tactic that the “The
government wants to take away all your guns.” No rational individual has proposed that, or
will; responsible hunters should take care of their guns (locked cases) but
that is far from confiscation. However, it is also true that no deer hunter
needs automatic weapons. I have personal knowledge of an individual, employed in
law enforcement, who, convinced that, “Obama will take away our guns”, hurried
after the 2008 election to purchase 2 semi-automatic rifles.
Mental illness and its treatment (or the lack
thereof) with psychiatric drugs. This is somewhat controversial from a statistical
point of view. Many of the mass shooters
in the U.S. suffered from mental illness, but the estimated (note: I did not
say “diagnosed”) number of mental illness cases has not increased as
significantly as the number of mass shootings. Under 5% of violent behaviors in
the U.S. are committed by persons with mental health diagnoses. In truth, the significance
of this factoid has been inflated by both sides of the issue.) Conservatives cite it as justification for
allowing persons with emotional issues (including veterans diagnosed with PTSD (Chris
Kyle??) to own guns. Others cite the low overall violence rate, but as I showed
above, mental issues factor heavily in almost all of the 10 most deadly mass
shootings in our history.
·
The desire to seek revenge for a long history of
being bullied at school. In recent years, citizens calling themselves
"targeted individual" have cited adult bullying campaigns as a reason
for their deadly violence.
·
The widespread chronic gap between people's
expectations for themselves and their actual achievement, and individualistic
culture. This could probably be broadened to incorporate such other dystopian
relatively new issues as “incel” persons. (look it up if you must)
·
Desire for fame and notoriety. Also, mass
shooters learn from one another through "media contagion," that is, mass
media coverage of them and the proliferation of social media sites that tend to
glorify the shooters and downplay the victims." As an individual with a
pretty fair appreciation of Psychology, especially of adolescents, I think this
may be understated, and linked to the issue above, personal under-achievement and
poor self-image, whatever the reason.
·
The copycat phenomenon.
·
Failure of government background checks due to
incomplete databases and/or staff shortages. This is also farther down this
list than I feel it should be. Aurora, Stoneman Douglas and several others of
the “top ten” clearly indicate that reasonable background checks would never have
place automatic weapons in the hand of either Holmes or Cruz. The Pulse shooter
had disqualifying issues as well. The NRA response to this, of course is that “They
would have gotten them somewhere else.”
How about if the firearm manufacturer and/or the dealer were held
criminally and civilly liable for failing to do due diligence? How about allowing
or, better yet, requiring, mental health professionals to notify the federal data
base with concerns without recrimination? And oh yeah, how about parents
observing their children a bit closer. Columbine anyone?
So, there you have it for today. No good news.
Oh wait, in the local section of today’s paper, as is usual,
they print news articles form various states, since all of us are from
somewhere else in The Villages. Today’s hot item from Idaho, was the announcement
that main street traffic lines in Boise were to be repainted, since recent lane
changes had confused residents.
How’s that? Sorry.
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