The Enabler of Death

Telltale Signs
By Rodel E. Rodis

If the Mayan Doomsday calendar prediction is right, then this will be my final column. It’s been a pleasure writing for you. Of course, if it turns out to be a 1600 year old hoax, then Merry Christmas to all.

I wish I could write about something cheerful and positive, but mightily as I tried, the nightmarish image of the 20 murdered children in Newtown, Connecticut, their bodies riddled with multiple bullets, could not leave my mind.

I just cannot fathom what possessed 20-year old Adam Lanza to enter an elementary school, after killing his own mother, armed with her three licensed weapons of mass destruction – a Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle, a Glock and a Sighauser pistol – and proceed to kill 26 people.

There is speculation that it was due to his mental illness – Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. Others attribute it to the influence of violent video games he played regularly like WarCraft with foreboding titles like Tides of Darkness and Reign of Chaos. Some blame it on the pervasive Hollywood culture of violence in movies like the Expendables and the forthcoming Django Unchained.

But the mental illness, the violent video games and movies spreading the culture of violence are present all over the world. In fact, the video game, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, just sold $1 billion worth of discs in 15 days worldwide. And yet mass murders did not break out outside the US.

What distinguishes the US from the rest of the world is the overwhelming availability of firearms. There are more than 300 million of them in the US, half of all the privately-owned firearms of the world, owned and possessed by less than 5% of the world’s population -accounting for 80% of all the gun deaths in the 23 richest countries of the world. More Americans have been casualties of domestic gunfire in the US than have died in all US wars combined.

Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee denied that the December 14 mass murder of 20children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School was caused by the easy availability of guns, vehemently arguing instead that it was because “we have systematically removed God from our schools.”

But God was in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin on August 5 this year when Wade Page opened fire and killed 6 devout Sikh members who were in prayer. God was also in a Korean Christian College in Oakland, California on April 2 this year when a gunman killed 7 people including a Filipina immigrant working as a receptionist. Have we removed God from a Sikh temple and a Christian college?
Mother Jones magazine has identified 62 mass killings that have occurred in the US in the last 30 years. At least 25 of these killings have taken place in the last six years, about 7 alone this year.

In his speech at Newtown, Connecticut two days after the massacre, Pres. Obama pledged to end the epidemic of gun violence plaguing the nation. “We can’t tolerate this anymore,” he said.

“These tragedies must end, and to end them, we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and it is true. No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society. But that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than this….Because what choice do we have?”

The answer is obviously gun control but, a measure of the powerful influence of the gun lobby in the US, is that the use of this term is almost a non-starter as Republicans consider the Second Amendment “right to bear arms” the most sacred right in the US Constitution. Other freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights, like freedom of speech and freedom of peaceable assembly, are subject to limitations but not the Second Amendment.

In fact, in the last four years, it has been greatly expanded in 37 states where Republicans have passed 99 laws making guns “easier to own, easier to carry in public, and harder for the government to track.”

Eight states now allow firearms in bars. Missouri allows citizens to carry guns even while intoxicated and even to fire it if “acting in self-defense.” Kansas allows permit holders to carry concealed weapons inside K-12 schools. Five states allow citizens to carry concealed weapons on college campuses.

There was a time in the 1980s when Republicans would regularly vote for “gun control” laws like the ones that banned the manufacture of plastic guns that could pass through metal detectors and armor piercing bullets that were called “cop killers”.

Voting in the minority against both bills was Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyoming). When the assault weapons ban came up for renewal in 2004, after it passed in 1994, Vice-President Dick Cheney made sure that it was dead and buried.

The mantra the Republicans and its subsidiary, the National Rifle Association (NRA), has used repeatedly to oppose gun control is “guns don’t kill people, people do.” But Nicholas Kristoff argues, “many auto deaths are caused by people who break laws or behave irresponsibly. But we don’t shrug and say, “Cars don’t kill people, drunks do.” He asks: “Why can’t we regulate guns as seriously as we do cars?”

Kristoff points out that the US regulates ladders (there are 5 pages of federal regulations about it) but ladders cause the deaths of only 300 people a year in the US, just 1% of those caused by gun deaths. As one reader noted, it is more difficult in the US to adopt a pet than to own a gun.

It is so easy to purchase a gun in the US that Adam Gadahn, the American-born member of al Qaeda, uploaded a youtube video where he encouraged terrorists to carry out attacks on the United States. “America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check, and most likely, without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?”

Al Qaeda can thank the NRA and its 4 million members for making the streets safe for criminals and terrorists. But actually, NRA members shouldn’t be blamed. A poll of NRA members conducted recently by Republican pollster Frank Luntz showed broad support for gun control.

For example, 74% of NRA members voiced support for background checks, while 68% of them believe that individuals who have been arrested for domestic violence should not be eligible for gun permits. And 75% agree that concealed weapon permits should not be available to people who have committed violent misdemeanors.

But the NRA leadership is not guided by the opinions of its members. More influential are the gun manufacturers like Smith& Wesson which have contributed up to $38.9 million to the NRA, a number based on publicly listed “sponsorship” levels on NRA fundraising pamphlets. The actual figures are much higher.

As Bill Moyers wrote, “the NRA is the enabler of death — paranoid, delusional and as venomous as a scorpion. With the weak-kneed acquiescence of our politicians, the National Rifle Association has turned the Second Amendment of the Constitution into a cruel and deadly hoax.”

Make it one of your top new year’s resolutions to write your Congressional representative to support meaningful gun control legislation.
Have a safe new year.

(Rodel50@gmail.com)