BOSTON, BOMBS, GUNS, CARS and SOCIETY

The inevitable happened in the form of a bomb blast at the prestigious Boston marathon. A single evil deed grabbed the world headlines. A couple of backpacks, pressure cookers or whatever with explosives needed only a few crazed individuals to put the carnage into effect. By so doing they put whatever cause they espoused onto central stage.

All of a sudden the rogue nation, North Korea, threatening to blow up the world with nuclear capabilities was no longer in the news in favor of two sociopaths that effectively paralyzed a whole nation. (Do you believe North Korea had called it quits because they were in a the middle of a bad news week for them? Or rather did the media, initially, magnify the North Korea issue, as they had nothing else to run with? There must be a reason why the whole issue just went away.)  

SOCIETY HAS HAD TO ADAPT

We live in a different world that has changed our lives forever. It is impossible to prevent an occasional incident such as this from breaking through the ever-tightening security. As Peter Bergen, the renowned security analyst, comments there have been very few bomb incidents in the US since 9/11. No- one had died in a bomb attack since 9/11 till this Boston marathon carnage. He states that there have been 380 individuals convicted for acts of this nature – in fact mainly for conspiring to commit these acts. 

Society has responded swiftly and uncompromisingly to the horror of a bombing killing the innocents. All large sales of fertilizer are monitored as well as hydrogen peroxide.  The safety provisions put in place have resulted in only one letter bomb being sent off in the past ten years. No –one has objected to the inconvenience caused by the checks at airports or anywhere else where they may be instituted. Nor has Congress questioned the vast sums of taxpayer money that is being spent to fund the anti – terror program.

Never the less the impact of Boston is shattering and far reaching. Not only has everyone a fear of going into public places, the tragedy of three deaths, one an eight year old, the hundreds maimed, the blood, the gore are imprinted on the psyche of a nation. The nation mourns the loss of life and limb. Whatever money is needed to prevent another such an incident will be voted unanimously by Congress and so it should.

But bombing is also linked to guns. The two suspects were immigrants from Chechnya. Rapid firing weaponry, illegally obtained, was part of their arsenal and was instrumental for the death of one policeman and several others injured. Also the fact that a suspect escaped and held Boston to hostage for a day was because of illegal firearms.

DRUNK DRIVERS, SEAT BELTS, CAR SEATS FOR CHILDREN, AND GUNS

Drunken driving and the deaths they cause have decreased dramatically as a result of strict enforcement of legislation that takes away your right to drive while under the influence of alcohol. In fact society will deny you the right to drive at all unless you meet the requisites demanded by it and obtain a license. Also specially adapted car seats, legally enforced, have reduced pediatric car deaths by 75%.  This followed a decrease in the overall death rate that was as a result of legislators taking away your right not to wear seat belts. (Put another way you are forced to wear seat belts even though it is surely your right to decide on an issue that will only affect your health?). Yet somehow 17,000 mentally unfit individuals commit suicide each year with guns and Society is doing nothing to stop this.

Generally speaking society has been ever vigilant about preventing preventable deaths other than guns. As Jon Stewart pointed out that one person falling or jumping of a bridge spanning a Highway resulted in protective fencing being put up across the country.

Congress does not hesitate to legitimize restrictions on purchases of all natures. If you wish to purchase Sudafed, a cold medicine, you have to produce a photo ID, enter your name and address in a book and only obtain a certain number of tablets per month. This is to prevent the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine. Yet the same purchaser can go across the road and buy as many AK 47’s as he or she likes with as much ammunition and not even have it recorded.

As we have also seen the introduction of security for preventing bomb attacks has dramatically decreased these events since 9/11. Yet the biggest killer of them all – guns we ostensibly can do nothing about. There are approximately 30,000 automobile deaths a year, 3 bomb deaths in 10 years and 31,000 gun deaths a year. The former two dramatically reduced since legislation that impinged on society’s freedoms was introduced. ( There were 55,000 deaths from motor cars in 1972, USA population 210 million versus 32,000 in 2012, USA population 315 million).  Society can monitor fertilizer sales but not gun sales.  It is salutary to think that the monthly death toll from firearms is equal to the total mortality of 9/11. All the American deaths in Vietnam are the equivalent of just over 2 years of gun deaths but those succumbing have not had their names etched in stone and are forgotten,

LAME ARGUMENTS

 Second amendment rights are used as an excuse not to monitor society’s right to buy whatever guns they like, as often as they like, without having background checks or having to register or license them! Nowhere in the second amendment does it give you the democratic right to buy a death-creating weapon without even registering it. You cannot even buy a car without registering it. So what if a register is created and every sale monitored like that of fertilizer?

Other arguments include the unsubstantiated baloney that that the government wants to creates a register so as to take away your guns. That argument is as facile as saying the car registry is a guise for the government to take away your cars. Then they maintain it is senseless controlling guns, as the bad guys will get them anyway. On the basis of that argument all law is a waste of time. No drug laws as the cartels will market drugs anyway. No burglary laws as crooks are going to steal anyway. The only areas that are, apparently, ok to legislate on, are female reproductive rights!

Why is every legislator terrified of stricter background checks and a register of every sale? This, when 90% of the electorate is in favor? Why are they so anxious to prevent car and bomb deaths and every other death but not gun deaths?

What is behind the US Senate’s reason to continue this insanity to not even legalize compulsory background checks for the purchase of weapons? To exacerbate this sense of unreality there were not even enough votes to even bring the banning of semiautomatic and other rapid firing weaponry to the floor.

THE SIMPLE ANSWER

The simple answer is money. The NRA gun lobby does not represent gun owners they represent gun sellers. Obama directly placed the blame of legislative failure of gun legislation on the NRA and its allies. The NRA bully and threaten candidates to do their bidding. They hide behind the Constitution and pay lip service to safety. They would turn the country into the Wild West in the name of greed. As they read the situation, more guns should protect schools, these would have to be bigger and better guns than the ones owned by the bad guys. No longer will we have High Noon or Gunfight At OK Corral but rather the shootout at Springfield High School.

With the advent and availability of more and more sophisticated guns the NRA’s attitude becomes more and more dangerous. In turn the non- response of the legislature becomes more and more irresponsible. What is it about 90% of the electorate’s opinion they don’t understand?

The profits from all these guns and their ammunition are unbelievable.  This is really why legislators would rather back fertilizer registration and not gun registration. This is what this is all about and the posturing is sickening. How do the legislators look the parents of 20 dead children straight in the face and talk about second amendment rights in the abstract? Who would want to be reelected without making any meaningful attempt to control this carnage? One does not have to ask has it reached the stage where lives are secondary to profits? It has. While everyone knows politics is the art of the possible there have to be some issues on principle that legislators will risk their careers for.

The media also have failed in their responsibility by not keeping this carnage front and center of the public’s awareness. One week after the Boston bombing there were five killed in a Seattle shoot out. This was not even in the public eye for half a day. It is if those who die by shooting are not worthy of any notice and are irrelevant. Instead on and on, on every news channel, the FBI video was played and replayed. Pundits discussed ad nauseam whether the suspect should be charged as a criminal or an enemy combatant. All those Senators who went on and on about the bombings are ironically the same ones that will do nothing about gun violence.

THE ONLY SOLUTION

Jay H. Ell has blogged on guns for years. Initially he was mildly hopeful that the NRA would actually help, (Blog: The Tuscan Massacre and American Culture- Can There Be a Solution? – January, 2011). However, even after Newtown, Jay H. Ell, gave up hope, (Blog: Guns: Obama,The NRA, GPO = Stalemate- January 2013).

The irony is that it is only going to be more money that will ultimately defeat the NRA, not principles or children’s lives. Domestic philanthropists will join Mayor Bloomberg and his group of mayors and law enforcement officers and outbid them at election time. Pro gun candidates will feel the weight of this money. The influential Gifford’s have turned this into their lifelong crusade.

As Bloomberg has already shown the NRA has not all that much money – it is all relative you see. And finally, market forces will win out and surely that is what the NRA believes in.

The electorate, then hopefully, with the knowledge of who supports what, will make guns a defining issue at election time.