Initially,
I was at a loss for words.
I
know that may come as a surprise to anyone who knows me, but it took some time
to process the facts about the horrific massacre in Newtown, CT before I had a
cogent line of reasoning about the whole thing.
That is, if anything that happened in that sad burg has even the
faintest relation to reason. There’s
been a tidal wave of words written about the shootings, the shooter, his Mom,
the dead kids, the town, banning assault rifles, arming teachers, throwing
buckets… all of it is now so much news fodder.
This
here is my perspective.
As
the details began to emerge, it became apparent (at least to me) that the
bloody rampage was yet another in a string of unfortunate-yet-wholly-avoidable
death marches that involved readily-available weapons of mass destruction. What, you think I’m wrong to classify the
semi-automatic rifle that Adam Lanza used to reign down death on his victims as
a WMD? I’d say his Mom’s Bushmaster
AR-15 death stick should be the very definition of a WMD, as anything that one
man can use to mete out instant death to twenty-six people in 10 minutes fits
the category quite nicely. I’m just
sayin’.
In
keeping with the WMD theme, I’d also categorize the bloodletting as a terrorist
act perpetrated on innocent victims. I
dinna care why the shooter decided to lock, load and pull that trigger… no one
will really ever know, it will all be supposition and speculation. But make no mistake: this was a textbook act of terror, no
different than the ones in Blacksburg (VA) or Oklahoma City or New York City or Aurora or
Columbine. Mr. Lanza had obviously made
enough lucid and strategic decisions to ensure that he exacted the maximum
level of chaos before he decided to cap himself once he realized The Man was on
him like flies on shit.
A couple of
points to ponder:
HE
SHOT HIS MOM IN THE FACE MULTIPLE TIMES.
Think about that for a minute. HIS
MOM. She had to know she was gonna die
in the split-second before she actually, you know, died. What went through her mind in that brief
moment before her skull was pierced by the first of many projectiles vomited
from the muzzle of her own gun? Was she
sorry about all the shooting range practice she enjoyed with her
now-a-killing-machine son? Did she
regret his ease of access to HER GUNS that were being used to remove her from
among the living? Did her mind’s eye
flash to the basement walls of her home, the place where Adam holed up and
played first-person shooter video games all day, the walls covered with
military posters and images of weaponry and firearms?
HE
BLASTED THOSE LITTLE KIDS WITH MULTIPLE ROUNDS, BUDA BUDA BUDA BUDA, JUST LIKE
IN A VIDEO GAME. I don’t blame video
games for the violence that Adam wreaked in that school. However, I do believe that first-person
shooter games desensitize the player to the results of real-world violent
acts. I believe the ubiquitous and violent
network television programming, where seemingly every other prime-time show revolves
around pointing guns and shooting guns, desensitizes the viewer to the violent
acts being portrayed on screen. I also believe that we as a nation, by historically using our military forces when and where they don't belong, sanctify the notion that guns = strength, a piss-poor way to enhance international relations in the year 2012.
Adam’s Mom knew about his predilection for playing violent video games, that he knew how to shoot real guns, that he was mentally ill and that he had easy access to her arsenal of death sticks. How could she not know he was a dangerous threat?
Adam’s Mom knew about his predilection for playing violent video games, that he knew how to shoot real guns, that he was mentally ill and that he had easy access to her arsenal of death sticks. How could she not know he was a dangerous threat?
HE
WAS WEARING BODY ARMOR AND CARRIED MULTIPLE LOADED WEAPONS. This was not an accident, his all-Black
wardrobe with Kevlar shoulder pads, lapels and boutonniere. Before his rampage, did he browse the web,
looking for just the right shirt, the right pants, the proper footwear, the
right grade of anti-ballistic but not-too-binding-in-the-crotch outerwear? Did he buy the stuff with a credit card, and
whose card was it? Was his Mom monitoring
the purchases being made by her mentally-ill son, her Asperger’s Syndrome offspring,
or was he able to build his stash of deathwear in the privacy of his fully-optioned
basement apartment without her ever having a clue?
(facepalm)
These
are not random factoids. This guy knew
what he wanted to accomplish and, for whatever fucked-up reason he decided was
valid, he definitely succeeded. His Mom
is the most culpable party in this whole sad sorry tale, and she’s as dead as
dead can be. I try to find some sense of
grief or sorrow over her demise, but it just ain’t there. I blame her for the actions of her son that
day as much as I blame him. So sue me.
Naturally,
this all gets me back to the flaming brouhaha now bouncing from coast-to-coast
in this Land of the Armed-and-Dangerous.
We have one side screaming for a ban on assault weapons (the ‘AR’ in
AR-15 stands for ‘Assault Rifle’) and banning large ammo magazines, while
the other side screams “SECOND AMENDMENT!!” and rapidly buys up every legal assault weapon in stock, threatening anyone with a spray of lead if they try and take away their death sticks, all while recommending that schools become fortified sites with armed teachers and
armed principals. Truly, it makes
me laugh out loud, the stupidity being demonstrated by both sides of the
argument, the same one that blows up after each and every massacre.
As
I’ve written/argued/discussed numerous times before, we are a nation that
TOTALLY LURVES our guns, the idea of guns, the notion that guns make us free,
that guns solve problems, that there’s nothing that can’t be solved with a
point-and-shoot implement of destruction. Firearms are as Amerikkan as apple
pie, baseball, Wal-Mart, diabetes, obesity and NASCAR. Those who spout the
insipid trope that ‘Guns don’t kill people, people kill people’ seem to forget
that a gun cannot fire itself, and therefore the correct insipid trope should
be ‘Guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people’.
As
BHO stated in his excellent (and IMHO, most Presidential) speech to the Newtown residents and the nation on
the Sunday following the bloodshed, nothing will change unless WE change, and
that is going to be one large order of chow mein. We’re talking about a seminal shift in the
gun-loving culture we wallow in, along with a shift to real-world solutions
that are more nuanced than just banning things right and left. All of this will take time, but we may just
be at a spectral moment where we can find reasonable solutions to our national
epidemic of gun violence.
I
think one of the main stumbling blocks is the notion many gun owners have that
the gummint is coming to take away their death sticks. While this is a massively uninformed
viewpoint, it is one the NRA has successfully injected across all strata of gun
owners, making it real to them regardless of how nonsensical it really is. There is not a single instance that can be
pointed to during the Obama administration that could even remotely be
considered as harmful to gun ownership, yet the notion persists in lieu of, you
know, facts and stuff. The NRA has
poisoned the well, and they have much to answer for because they espouse ZERO
restrictions to gun ownership, registration, use or any variation thereof.
The
time has come to treat firearms in the same way we treat automobiles. Anyone who wants to own a gun must first
study for and pass a use test, demonstrate their ability to properly operate one, register and insure the weapon, and surrender it
if misused in any way. You know, JUST
LIKE A CAR. Assault weapons have no
place in the hands of civilians, but if someone has cause to own one, they can
submit a request and state their case and, if approved, may possess that assault weapon subject to the same regulations as every other
gun.
To
those who espouse the idea that we need EVEN MORE GUNS in the hands of citizens
to stay safe… arm everyone and then no one will risk bad behavior, I have only
one question: ARE YOU FUCKING
NUTS?!?!?! This is the single worst idea
ever in the pantheon of bad ideas to address gun violence in our country. We do not live in Tombstone, Arizona circa
1875… we need to act like civilized humans and reject the notion of an armed
populace. Same with the idea that gun owners
don’t want the Feds to know how many death sticks they own, just in case
there’s a revolution and they have to take up arms against the evil
soshulists. COME ON… does anyone in
their right mind think an untrained force of self-described ‘patriots’ will
last a single day against a modern military machine?
It
shouldn’t have surprised me in the least that the gun store next door to my
work, a vile place that sells (among others) exactly the kind of weapon used to
murder all those little kiddies, has been doing a crapload of business in the
last week. There’s a line at the door
every morning by 10am, their parking lot is always full and their customers try
to sneak their cars into our lot, even though we have signs posted everywhere blaring
‘PRIVATE PARKING’. I reckon they think
we’ll leave them alone because, well… guns! No doubt every one of those patrons are
simply buying their freedom death sticks to make sure the Kenyan Usurper
Socialist Communist Muslim Illegal Alien gun-grabbing President won’t deny them of their
Second Amendment rights to own military-grade weapons with which to hunt deer
and fend off moochers and takers when the revolution goes down. I doubt any of them even know what the Second
Amendment says. It is truly sickening to know what their money is buying, and
why.
Of
course, none of this matters to the devastated citizens of Newtown. They grieve and bury, bury and grieve, all
under the watchful eye of the ‘no sparrow shall fall’ national news media who
are looking for an angle to report. If
things roll as they always do, this sad event will fall off the radar in a few
weeks when another shiny object diverts our national ADD-addled psyche… unless
it’s another massacre. I know this
much: we are way past the time to have
resolved the issue of unfettered gun
ownership and uncontrolled gun violence in our country. I’m sick of the mewling and bullshit
arguments, sick of the death and the death sticks that cause it, sick of the
arrogance and stupidity that causes people to buy weapons like candy and horde
them as a hedge against the Zombie Apocalypse.
I’m sick of the gun fetishism that permeates every aspect of our
‘civilized’ society.
Whatever we do, we gotta do
it RIGHT NOW. The scarred
families in Newtown, and every other parent who has lost a child to senseless gun violence, deserve nothing less.
Update: in a press conference today, Wayne LaPierre of the NRA stated their official position... an armed guard in every school across this country will solve the problem of nutjobs attacking schools. Fuck that guy, and every other moron who says the answer to our national epidemic of gun violence is to have more guns in the hands of more people, especially around kids and their teachers.
Lead image, gracias de smirkingchimp.com; Sinead O'Connor 'Throw Down Your Arms' video, muchismas gracias de Youtube.com; fuck the NRA.
Update: in a press conference today, Wayne LaPierre of the NRA stated their official position... an armed guard in every school across this country will solve the problem of nutjobs attacking schools. Fuck that guy, and every other moron who says the answer to our national epidemic of gun violence is to have more guns in the hands of more people, especially around kids and their teachers.