GUNS - WHAT WILL IT TAKE?

Another day another shooting - and nothing budges. Guns are a metaphor for all that is wrong with America. The sick statistics from Oregon Community College are matter of a factly announced - 10 dead, 9 injured  and an arsenal of 14 firearms. According to the organization, Gun Violence Archive, this is the 265, yes 265th, and the 45th in schools, mass shooting this year! (The Gun Violence Archive formed in 2013 to record the sickly scores while Washington fiddles). The total number of gun related incidents this year to date is close on 40,000. The number of children under 17 dead from guns is 2,500. Five thousand parents and 10,000 grandparents and their siblings, relatives, friends, acquaintances have houses of mourning for their loss in this senseless slaughter. Society is generally shielded from nearly all of the mayhem as a shooting not involving several deaths barely merits a mention in the media. The 24 hour news cycle just cannot fit it in. The “minor” tragedy is no longer “sensational” and it is impossible to get ratings reporting on just one or a few dead. 

GUN CONTROL - A SICKLY PARTISAN ISSUE BOLSTERED BY SICK PEOPLE, SICK ARGUMENTS AND BLOOD STAINED CAMPAIGN FUNDS

Gun control, like abortion, contraception, welfare, income inequality and the death penalty is a partisan issue. The same party that tears the world apart with blood dripping forceps fighting for the sanctity of unborn life while simultaneously fighting to the death for the death penalty, go to the ends of the earth to protect the rights of slaughterers to buy as many A. K. 47’s as they like. The enabling Congressmen rationalize their bargain with the sick NRA gun lobby that hold sway over them like grim reapers. They justify their indifference to their pact with the devil by a distorted interpretation of the second amendment that in 1791 allowed guns in conjunction with a “well regulated” militia to be in the hands of private citizens. So to perpetuate this insane holocaust there is no pretense at rational debate but rather reliance on an arcane amendment written 225 years ago for an entirely different circumstance - to protect us against the English. Not because it is not right or wrong to allow virtually anyone to create an arsenal that would have made Al Capone blush, rather the Constitution says we can!

 IF IT IS THE MENTALLY ILL WHY DON’T YOU DO SOMETHING!!

Then the mentally ill are used as a scapegoat for employing a far more easily obtainable agent than heroin, death machines, to act out their insanity. The partisans believe blaming the mentally ill is a more palatable solution to the anarchy than eliminating the killing contraptions. However the same protagonists are not in the forefront campaigning for the sums needed to fund the hopelessly inadequate mental services in the country. (Any ER Physician will tell you that they board psychotics who have threatened to harm themselves or others for days in the ER as there are no psychiatric beds available for their admission).

 They are not only not in the forefront for lobbying for resources for mental health but rather these self same intrepid Congressmen oppose any additional appropriations  to treat the epidemic of mental illness in this country. It is forgotten that Ronald Reagan emptied the mental institutions to let the inmates roam homeless or reside in jail. The figures of incarcerated mentally ill are as astounding as those on gun deaths. In 2012 there were over 350,000 diagnosed mentally ill in prison - ten times the number in State psychiatric hospitals in the whole of America. The reason for this is put down to hopelessly inadequate psychiatric facilities. In 1955 there were over a half a million institutionalized psychiatric patients and now there are only 35,000. Fifteen percent of prison inmates and 24 percent of jail inmates exhibit psychotic symptoms according to a Department of Justice Report. That is amazing as those that commit homicide and suicide largely come out of the psychotic pool in addition to the mass murderers. It is obvious where these psychotics are now billotted - the prisons that are not designed to effect psychiatric care. 

So there really is a mental health problem and it does contribute to gun deaths in far greater numbers in suicides and homicides in addition to the insane carnages,  So don’t just stand there do something! 

CARRY ON RATIONALIZATION

Then the partisans argue that it is not the guns that do the killing but the “people”. Guns sure help especially those that have scores of rounds that can be fired in a second mowing the innocents that fall like wheat in their wake. 

Then there is the ultimate cynical intellectualization  - sell more of these rat tat tat automatons of carnage. Let everyone be armed to the teeth so that when the “bad guys” unleash their liquidation “the good guys” can mow them down. What a way to live or die as the case may be. Arm the teachers, the attendants at all places of sport and entertainment, restaurant servers, nurses, and all the other areas where citizens congregate. 

If there is an argument as to who are the bad guys there is a precedent from the Wild West, as to where the blame belongs. The guy who draws first is the “baddy.” So if the “goody” shoots first the “baddy” can argue that he was just carrying around all that stuff for protection. This is not just funny. There were ex military personnel in the Umpqua Community College who had licensed concealed weaponry. When asked why they didn’t intervene they argued that they had discussed this among themselves and as the SWAT team was en route they did not want to be mistakenly shot at. 

Extensive research has conclusively shown that wherever there are guns, regardless of why they were purchased there is more likely to be death - suicide, homicide or accident. There is no research that shows that having guns helped  prevent death. 

This  arming and allowing society to be vigilantes is unbelievably irresponsible. A well known Police Chief in Florida argued that it was difficult enough to train his policeman when to shoot now literally ill trained people of all walks of life are being given the green light to duel it out with a maniac. His remarks were apropos of the Jeb Bush “Stand Your Ground” legislation which gave anyone the cart blanche to shoot.

NRA POSITION

The NRA keep scorecards, not of the death of innocents, but how the elected representatives of society, Congressmen vote to guard the NRA's right to rain down hell on society. Those who obey their master’s voice are rewarded with blood soaked campaign funds but more significantly, those that don’t are actively ostracized and every ounce of influence is effected to replace them. The threats are not so veiled either. The NRA are the main reason that guns are a partisan issue.

To illustrate just how powerful the NRA are, Congress stopped the Center of Disease Control from keeping statistics on gun violence in the mid nineties at their behest. When President Obama issued an Executive Order for this to restart Congress would not fund the operation.

After the Sandy Hook disaster - 20 children and 6 adults cold - the shocked nation was treated to the NRA with its usual sanctimonious and self righteous statement - “Joining in horror, outrage and grief with earnest prayers for the families who suffered such an incomprehensible loss at such an unspeakable crime”, followed by an astonishing rant by their President, Wayne La Pierre, who blamed everyone excepting themselves. 

La Pierre harangued that the nation brags about its gun free zones leaving the children at school vulnerable to monsters and predators. (Untrue as was seen in Umpqua Community College catastrophe). The children needed to be protected like the banks and the President he rambled on. He blabbered that society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters… that are possessed by demons. He wailed that society had no national database of the mentally ill and that Federal gun prosecutions had dropped by forty percent. (His criticism of no database for the mentally ill comes strangely from the NRA who axed gun violence databases). He spluttered on about the callous and corrupt who sold deadly video games that poisoned the minds and offended every standard of a civilized society. The media, he continued, rather than face their moral failings, demonize lawful, (sic), gun owners. 

His final message was good guys with guns to fight the bad guys - police in every school. (Actually you need them in every class room not to mention the library and the gym). Wayne called upon Congress to introduce just that and use the money used for foreign aid to fund it all. La Pierre sagely argued that if the children were prized more than money than Congress would put into effect his strategy. 

The President of the NRA had no suggestion for the cinemas the malls and the rest of the 33,000 souls that depart annually from the American soil by gun shots.

WHAT WILL PERSUADE CONGRESS?

Ninety percent of society wants background checks and no guns for the mental disabled. In addition seventy percent want a national data base. While there is a preponderance of society that wants stricter gun laws there is a GOP Democratic split on the subject. However, the NRA members are not as divided. In a poll commissioned by Mayors Against Illegal Guns nearly 90% of gun owners believed that second amendment rights went hand in hand with keeping the guns out of criminal hands. 

Obama to his credit has tried and tried and tried. He has called on the electorate to consider the election a one issue election. The GOP candidates seem ready and willing to choose sides. Trump is already into the good guy bad guy answer. Jeb not expectedly maintained that “stuff happens”. As Governor he signed into law written by the NRA. Hillary would happily sign on - gun control has always been one of her things and Bill had a law passed limiting sales of the heavy duty stuff only to be repealed by the GOP Congress. Bernie Sanders, the angel from heaven is in a bit of trouble here as he has been at kindest wishy washy on the subject. This circumstance is as much reflection of the tentacles of the NRA. as it is to his belief system. However he has choice.. …

So it needs a massively concerted effort by the media, who should once and for all forget about ratings and lead in this regard. They should just not drop the issue after the last funeral in Oregon. Then there are the big money guys like ex Mayor Bloomberg and The Mayors for Illegal Guns, the Brady crowd, and Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly who are battling night and day. Yet they are being outspent 6 to 1 by the pro gun crowd. They need a Bloomberg to rally the team and at least pony up enough money to take this on. To quote Hillary, “You need a movement”.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

The time for pussy footing around has to be over.

1. Every gun in this country needs to be registered to an owner with a name and finger prints. Every owner needs a background check and those that don’t cut it need their guns confiscated. Every gun that is not reasonably used for hunting or protection needs to be handed in in a period of amnesty. No - one needs guns that can shoot screeds of bullets - the police don’t use them. Those that have guns need training  - you need a license to drive a car. (The NRA has thousands of trained gun handlers who Jay H. Ell believes would be only to willing to help). Their licenses should be renewed periodically.   

The English threat of invasion that evinced the Second Amendment has passed. 

2. Then the second plank to this platform should be addressed - psychiatric care for the mentally challenged. There is little doubt that the mass murder phenomenon is largely dictated  to societal neglect of the care of these people. This needs to be done with a vengeance as it would also result in a profound decrease in suicidal and other homicidal deaths. 

The cost of all of this is in the billions as Jay H. Ell has pointed out in one of his innumerable blogs on the gun death subject, (Tennessee, Colorado and All the Shootings - No Hope to Stop Them). One needs to consider this as a Public Health Problem and how we might prevent 33.000 deaths a year. (About the same number as are diagnosed with breast and prostate cancer). Using Cancer as a yardstick 124 billion is spent on research alone a year let alone treatment. Now almost nothing is spent on research into gun deaths - you don’t need too much research where there are obvious solutions. According to Mother Jones, the prestigious on line investigative site, gun violence costs society 229 billion a year which is the equivalent of the total bill for Medicaid nationwide. So probably, just guessing, a 10th of that is needed to get psychiatric care back to speed. 

3. To achieve any of this the stranglehold of the NRA hierarchy in controlling the agenda for society, patently against its wishes, needs to be broken. If this is achieved it can set a precedent for taking America back from the special interest groups and returning it to its peoples.

COME ON HILLARY

This is a natural issue for Hillary Clinton and so near to the hearts of her and Bill. This is an area which she has an unblemished record and Bill’s positive action to trade on. She is water treading at the moment and in a situation that calls for her just not making a mistake. This is an unnatural state for a Clinton. She can thump the tub and lead. She has already mooted an agenda. She needs to spearhead the movement she advocated. She has been able to go on attack now that the GOP presumptive Speaker of the House has admitted that the Benghazi hearings were political.

ALTERNATIVE

If none of this happens we can wince with slaughter house after slaughter house. In-between there will be the silent legions of suicides and homicides that will all add up to over 30,000 gun deaths annually with endless emotional and financial costs. The bad news is that the wait won’t be too long. The words of John Donne rung in my ears as I saw a young mother rush her two little babbling girls to the school bus:

“Ask not for whom the bell tolls for the bell tolls for thee” -