.....AFTER a mass shooting, I always make a point of checking in with the National Rifle Association. Friday morning I went to its impressive website to look at what might be going on over at the propaganda organ of the weapons industry. You know, after five human people were killed at Northern Illinois University and a gay teen was murderized by another little kid with a handgun here in the Southland, at an Oxnard junior high.
.....The gun pimps seemed not to be addressing either killing at all. No, instead, the NRA’s “Top News Stories” were: Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program Reaches 21 Millionth Child, Deadline Approaches for NRA Youth Education Summit, and NRA Club University to Be Held in Austin, Texas.”
.....Wow. Stop the presses already. Oh, and guns don’t kill people. Mentally ill children kill people.
.....No mention either of the predictable, even necessary crime for which the NRA is directly (yes, directly) responsible in yet another case of students at a college killed by a mentally ill person or homophobe or misogynist or Regular Guy who found it easy enough to buy multiple weapons and bullets or find them in Dad’s closet or garage or wherever these assholes, all NRA supporters of course, keep their shit. No, instead, an attack on Rosie O’Donnell.
.....So, beyond checking in, I always make a point of actually calling the NRA’s toll free number. 1-800-672-3888.
.....“I am just calling,” I said on Friday morning, “to acknowledge the work of the NRA.” I paused here. (Red has done this before, because I am an asshole, so I kind of have it down. It’s fun, if you like this sort of thing, like tearing the wings off of flies or talking to Republicans.)
.....“Well, thank you sir,” said the minimum wage-paid stooge who sits in a call center somewhere in a “right-to-work” state.
.....“Yes,” I continued, “I wanted to thank you for your consistent and tireless work to get weapons into the hands of people who kill their wives, or students or little kids, especially women, and especially this week, at high schools, colleges and universities. I wanted to make sure that you know just how much I hold the NRA responsible for confusing the Second Amendment with the right to make weapons manufacturers wealthy and lobbying to challenge reasonable restrictions on purchase of handguns and for….”
.....And so on. You get it. The guy let me talk. In fact, I have never been hung up on. These are polite people, at least for a while. It’s my impression that the NRA doesn’t get many of these calls (damn shame, too) and that the Call Center phone op doesn’t quite know what to do. Finally he or she understands the rhetorical tack, as obvious as a sinking ship, and thanks me quickly and hangs up.
.....It’s all useless and petty, mean and pointless. It doesn’t make me feel better, but it makes me feel. Bad, too. Not as bad as must feel the useless public officials who can’t seem to follow the clumsy and obvious cause and effect of billions spent by this criminal outfit and the reliably, only completely predictable next shootings, which epidemiologists and doctors can see coming, not to mention law enforcement, Congress and anybody with a brain in their head. I like to cringe when the elected official makes a public statement, because it feels bad too. When the president of the college and the governor of the state offer that there’s not much we can do, except help the victims’ families and pray and develop, yes, better communications and safety mechanisms at public institutions, maybe install more phones. Yes, more phones. Phones. (Because there aren’t cell phones everywhere?) And never, ever point out the complicity of the Colt and Glock companies and their paid hustlers for the profiteers and fetishists of mechanical death made easy. No, so scared or coerced or bought off are they, so far, far away from what is most obvious and clear that they chalk it all up to fate or “a sign of the times we live in” (actual quote, heard on NPR) without reading the actual sign right there, which reads, clearly, written in blood, thank you, legible from anywhere in the world in any language, “National Rifle Association: Sponsor, Gun Violence.”
— RE
Andrew Tonkovich
14 comments:
Red, I share your dismay on the senselessness of gun fueled crime.
Please do not irrationally blame the NRA or gun manufacturers.
Mexico has NO NRA and ordinary citizens have NO right to bear arms. Yet the gun crime rate is about double there.
Clearly something else is driving this behavior.
One component has been drugs, both illegal and legal.
Legal drugs, such as alcohol, involve more people in murder than guns. Witness the auto fatality rates re drunk drivers. Use or discontinuance, of prescribed psych drugs are highly correlated in gun violence.
Illegal use of drugs, especially meth and crack, are also harvesting the lives of thousands. Wars are being fought over the market in that contraband, both in your neighborhood and globally.
For all that bad news there is evidence that having weapons available to sane rational citizens keeps us from achieving Mexican or Columbian levels of gun violence. It seems that the mere presence of a law abiding citizen with a weapon deters criminal predation.
I share your angst Red but the lions aren't going to sleep with the lambs anytime soon. There is evil in this world and such evil will slay you. To stay alive in close proximity with a predator you need a weapon and the will and skill to wield it; not laws, nor words, nor prayers will save you.
Nice piece, Emma; and, as most of the time, I disagree with TB completely, but do appreciate the civilized manner in which he makes his points. So, thanks, TB, for the spirited discourse, even though I do think there are a number of red herrings contained therein.
Gun control is a Red Herring itself fuled by a leftist agenda and unjustifiable propaganda. Long live the NRA and long live our Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Now here, you see, is an example of how not to argue with a differing POV. If you just look stupid, you see, everyone just points and laughs and your attempt to dialogue is lost.
Sonny, go and read TB's post and learn a thing or two.
torabora--
Can I please have a citation or two to back up your statement that Mexico has a "gun crime rate" about twice that of the US?
--100 miles down the road
100 miles I Googled 'mexico "gun fatalities"' and got a wikipedia hit that referenced a UN study.
I did just for shits and giggles. There is ample evidence that Mexico is far more crime ridden than America.
For the last 15 years I've been an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal. They have spent a tank car of printers ink on what's wrong South of the Rio Grande. All the way to Tierra del Fuego. I believe that the solution to our immigration problem lies IN those countries. It can't be solved here.
The Kleptocracies and petite dictators that run every government South of us are a danger to us. Unfortunately there are alot of Americans making bank on that gun and drug trade. And so it goes, sadly.
Thanks. I'll check it out.
--100 etc.
Another country with very strict gun control is Columbia. There is supposed to be roughly one gun for every six citizens (it's about 1:1 in America) but the homicide rate,with and without guns, is about the highest in the world. It's so bad there, that Mexico looks safe!
England has strict gun control and almost no gun homicides.
There is something else going on besides gun control that drives the homicide rate. I am sure drug use is a component. It would be interesting if we could find a societal correlation between drug use and homicide. What countries have the least drug use and what is the homicide rate?
"Bowling for Columbine" deals with the inconsistencies in gun gun control, ownership, and homicides in different countries--Canada, for example, has a highly armed citizenry and little gun violence, with no clear example as to why.
Well, so much for Tora Tora Tora's instructive example of thoughtful, polite discourse, Sonny (and whatever other cats read this). Note shifting subject from bizarre Wiki entry from the U.N. (when, where?) to an overall chararcterization of Mexico as "crime-ridden" (no real reference to actual gun crimes) and then quickly changing topic to drugs and the post-colonial (our colonies) dictators (ours too) in the South and, yes, Colombia (sic). Tora, it's nifty to have opinions, but work on a critique, puh-leeze.
11:16,
at least tora gave you his sources. All you do is crap all over them and offer nothing. I have 5 guns, have nver killed anyone and exercise proper gun safety, lock, ammo stored separately, gun training, etc. I am also NOT a member of the NRA because they are way too political, but, they are not the cause of killings like this. It is the fault of the individual, no one else's. Put responsibility where it belongs, on the individual. If those around him knew he was off his meds, and this could cause potential life threatening issues for himself or others, then they also share the blame, but, it still falls on him. EOS
Doesn't the NRA resist stronger restrictions about handgun purhases, including those that target people with a documented history of mental illness?
While the individual certainly carries primary responsibility here - so does the state that allows him or her access to weapons.
What about the teenage shooter in Oxnard last week?
Easier access to guns makes it easier for the unbalanced to commit these atrocities. Why is this simple point lost on certain people?
Why does anyone need five guns?
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