In the wake of the blood dripping scenes of the Las Vegas massacre with nearly sixty dead and over five hundred wounded it is salutary to reflect on the past decades procession of similar events. In case there is anyone who has missed any detail of the non stop media coverage of the newest carnage nearly fifty legally purchased weapons of various capacities and an arsenal of ammunition has been uncovered - all the property of the Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock.
One of Jay H. Ell’s first blogs in January 2011 discussed a mass shooting in Tuscon, (Blog: “The Tuscon Massacre and American Culture - Can There Be A Solution?”). It is obvious with a President who has assured his faithful that he is a Second Amendment President even claiming that the Second Amendment “people” could do “something” if he lost the “rigged” election, the latest Republican nominee for the Senate unashamedly brandishing a gun at a political meeting and a succession of ongoing slaughters that haven’t even produced a semblance of condemnation of the present policy on arms, a solution is even further off than ever.
The Tuscon slaughter should have shaken Congress to the rafters as one of their own, Congresswoman Gabby Gifford, was near fatally shot and among the six dead was the Federal Chief Justice of Arizona. But it didn’t and still hasn’t with what has followed. That blog extensively researched the carnage that the non regulated sale of guns has allowed. It even offered solutions. The piece ended, as so many have before and after, asking how many attacks of this nature were needed before society acted. The question has become rhetorical.
OBAMA’S MISSION ON GUNS
President Obama made gun control a center piece of his legislative agenda. It is history that he got nowhere. The signal event, in 2102, during his administration, in this sickening ongoing saga, was the shooting death of twenty children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The POTUS wrongly believed that this horrendous senseless evil might be the final catalyst for some gun control. He reminded all that the solution to this all, ultimately, was political. This was not a social ill per se with the answer out of control of the decision makers but rather the legislators and ultimately the electorate had responsibility.
The litany of mass shootings continued and Jay H. Ell was one of the many that dutifully chronicled the slaughters and the impotence of the politicians and activists that pleaded for action. In 2014 following the Santa Barbara attack, he blogged, “Obama wants to take away your guns Mr. Martinez”. The reference to the title of this piece was that “Obama wants to take away your guns” had become the mantra of the NRA. The Mr. Matrinez was the father who asked why? In the interim since Sandy Hook Jay H. Ell had added, in futility, “Guns, Obama, the NRA = Stalemate” and “Obama vs NRA - a Win for Obama?“.
A BEREAVED FATHER’S PLEA
In the wake of the Santa Barbara tragedy the bereaved inconsolable father mourning his son Chris Martinez’s murder, summed up the whole sordid mess for posterity, “Why did Chris Die? Chris died because of craven irresponsible politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’s right to live? When will this insanity stop? ‘Stop all this madness, we don’t need to live like this’. We don’t want politicians’ sympathies. We want action”.
Nobody has more poignantly stated the shame associated with these real life curses than Mr. Martinez. Nothing has changed as the river of blood deepens by the day.
MASS MURDER DOESN’T MATTER UNLESS THE MURDERER IS A MUSLIM TERRORIST
In July 2015, following an attack on a military recruiting center with five dead, in Chattanooga, the theme was once again was revisited, Blog: “Tennessee, Colorado and all shootings - no hope to stop them”. The shooter was Mohammed Abdulazeez who after exhaustive investigation could not be found to have any connection with a terrorist organization. The country heaved an audible sigh of relief at this finding. It appeared that the only event of this nature that could evoke any action would be if the shooter was a Muslim terrorist.
Then of course there was the Charleston blotting out of nine black churchgoers and Orlando when close on fifty gays were slaughtered……..
The daily carnages are barely mentioned in the media. Between 2013 and 2015 there have been a 1000 mass shootings - the latter defined as more than four deaths an incident. Also forgotten is the wholesale murders in the streets, the suicides and the accidents. All in all thirty thousand dead a year from being at the wrong end of the barrel of a gun.
AT THE END OF THE DAY.
Unless the issue of gun control is tackled seriously Las Vegas will be just another statistic. Other unhinged individuals or psychopaths, loaded to the gills with arsenals easily obtained at gun shows, are waiting in the wings ready to break the newly established record by Stephen Paddock who notched up fifty - nine dead.
The NRA can smugly hide behind their sickening mantra, “People kill not guns”, politicians can claim that the Second Amendment renders them impotent to do anything about it even if they wanted too, Presidents’ can proudly claim that they stand for that distorted interpretation of the Constitution and political candidates can wave guns at meetings in the knowledge that they are supported by their political party. Meanwhile the wall to wall coverage of the tragedy will continue with the same sickening videos played and replayed while the survivors', local officials' and first responders' interviews will be repeated again and again till the ratings drop and the anchors pack up and go home. The country that has “come together” in this upheaval will eventually return to their daily routine till the next time.
And of course citizens will continue to vote for those cynical shameless representatives, just regarding this violence as a way of life. They "the people" are the ultimate arbiters of whether this mayhem continues or not. They too bear responsibility.
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