The world watched aghast at the surreal lunacy that is characterizing modern day America where at one end of the State of Texas they were matching DNA samples of parents to ascertain which of the mangled small balls of tissues, bone and skin were the offspring of whom while at the other end there was the National Rifle Association, (NRA), convention where the self same instruments of war that had just wreaked havoc were openly on sale. There were hundreds of vendors executing what any vendors do at any business or professional meeting, selling in this instance arms and ammunition.
To put an exclamation point on this bizarre scenario the current President was mourning with a town broken with sorrow and anger while the immediate past president and wannabe next president was mouthing the usual talking points that follow these tragedies - sympathy for the victims and not enough good men with guns. Biden was pleading as many had done before him to bring in laws that would not allow the unimpeded sale of weapons of war to eighteen year olds while Trump was mumbling about security at schools, (forgetting about churches, malls, synagogues, entertainment venues and the forty thousand homicides and suicides annually). Trump was offering banal solutions like single entrances to schools. Mental health treatment was also preferred as the key to the solution even though the UK with the same prevalence of abnormal mental pathology has fifty times fewer mass shootings.
How and why is this happening.?
THE POLITICS
The “Republican” politicians are out of sync with the electorate. Over eighty percent are calling for gun control of one sort or another while the “Republican” Senators to date have refused to budge. At the National Rifle Association, (NRA), Convention Trump reassured the faithful that they were the bedrock of the “Republican” Party. The NRA are the umbrella organization that are accredited with this madness. They keep a score of every legislator on how they vote on gun legislation. The scorecard is made available to their electorate to help them in, most importantly, the primaries so that the supporters of the unfettered right to uncontrolled gun ownership remains. The winners of the the low turn out primaries of the party that ultimately garners a bit more than forty percent of the total electorate can dictate policy. As Jay H. Ell has blogged again and again the system lends itself to minority rule and is rigged further to ensure it. The NRA has provided money directly to the campaigns of “their”candidates. But the NRA are currently on the verge of bankruptcy about to be put out of business. Their leadership has been shown to be corrupt and venal and the majority by far of the gun owners want background checks.
So if a majority of gun owners and even the NRA members want some gun control legislation why isn’t it happening?
THE CULTURE
Yet although the overwhelming majority wants restrictions America is awash with guns. There are more guns in circulation than there are people in the country - four hundred million. There is a cultural component which may be recognizable in other countries in the pastime of hunting which has been passed on from generation to generation, in a nation that has vast rural areas. Another element is in sport with target shooting and clubs that are dotted all over the countryside.
But the deepest cultural involvement is embedded in American history - from the time of the Wars of Independence to the conquering of the land of native Americans to the battles against Mexico to the days of the Wild West where law and order was subject to guns. All of the latter was hammered into the culture years gone by by the movie industry. The gun became a symbol of masculinity, law and order. Epic cinema ensconced the mantra that is spouted today - that the only way you stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.
However now most of the land grabbing culture is looked back in embarrassment and shame. Everyone forgets that Texas, California and the like belonged to Mexico. Land was also plundered from the indigenous “Red Indians” who used to speak in monosyllabic sentences in the movies of yore. The argument for guns galore is now based on freedom and the right to protect oneself which is enshrined via a bizarre interpretation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution which referred to the right of well regulated militias to bear arms. This has now morphed into protecting the right of eighteen year olds to buy AR 15’s.
But still how did it all happen?
THE MONEY
The strategy of the gun lobby is for all the world to see that one major party has as a central tenet that the right to bear arms is basic to America’s mantra of “liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness.” Therefore you have a binary choice. If you vote for the “Republicans” you need to be mindful that you are risking your children’s lives at school as well as for the promise of lower taxes and now “Not to be Replaced”.
The NRA keeps a tally of who in the legislature is sticking to the gospel and has in the past provided money to the believers. They are and have been the gatekeepers and financiers to see to it that the America with four percent of the world’s population has fifty percent of the guns.
To potentially allow massive sums to be donated to those who support the gun industry, the Supreme Court enacted a law which allows companies and individuals to donate as much money to political campaigns as they wish. Their rationale was that money was equated with free speech. The outcome is that a never ending stream of cash can potentially provide endless support to any cause or policy. The self same Supreme Court adopted a position on gun legislation not dissimilar to that of the NRA so there is no legal barrier to donate money to control the sale or ownership of guns of war.
Historically the NRA have been accredited as providing this money.. However the NRA at the moment is morally and financially on the verge of bankruptcy. The NRA past contributions to current “Republican” senators are not nearly enough to hold sway in the current political climate. The current biggest “guns for all” protagonist after Trump, Ted Cruz, has only received a half a million dollars. So the NRA has not enough in their coffers to continue their financial control over an issue, which like abortion is going to be front and center in the midterms.
If the NRA isn’t providing a financial backing to those scoring highly on their list who is?
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Like in Watergate and everything else in America, “follow the money”. The NRA may be the gatekeeper of which legislators support gun legislation but they don’t really represent gun owners or members of the NRA. So who do they represent? It would appear that the represent the gun industry who are loaded with money. It is noteworthy that the NRA not only continued with their convention as the tiny coffins were being made, they also insisted in allowing the vending to continue. The only company to withdraw was Daniel Defense the original makers of the AR 15 that the killer had purchased on his eighteenth birthday - just as youngsters had done in the recent racist attack in Buffalo and in the Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha Wisconsin
Who is Daniel Defense?
DANIEL DEFENSE AND THE VENDORS OF THE ARMS INDUSTRY AND THEIR MONEY
An article in the Washington Post entitled “How the AR - 15 conquered America” tells the story of how the availability of war weaponry changed the industry. Together with war videos, which are available everywhere in the world, the American public especially the youth with the non action of the “ NRA” senators were given access to the war weaponry. The Senate has even passed legislation that prohibits litigation of weapon makers and suppliers. According to The Washington Post article the AR 15 became a status symbol of American masculinity and a new culture was born. While Daniel Defense prospered the most there are now five hundred companies that are in the business of making AR types of gun with the endless ammunition that is needed. The weapon industry has flourished the past three decades although nobbled for a decade with an assault weapon ban which the NRA dominated Senate has refused to renew.
So how much money is there in the firearm industry which was revolutionized by Daniel Defense? (Incidentally the company’s ad was forbidden to be shown at the Super Bowl because it was geared to selling war weapons to the youth).
The National Shooting Sports Foundation which is run by the Firearm Industry Trade Association produced a report on the “Economic Impact of the Firearm and Ammunition Industry”. In the introduction to the report the claim was that the growth of the industry has been “nothing short of remarkable.This has been regardless of the general economic situation”. They estimate that in 2021 there have been over a half a million new gun owners. They don’t detail how much money was brought in by sales but they state three hundred and seventy five thousand jobs are involved with wages that total twenty one billion dollars and they claim that the economic impact of the industry is over seventy billion dollars. Even though the Association donates a billion dollars to wild life conservation that is an awful lot of money left over in profit.
According to the Washington Post informant, Ryan Busse, in the article “How the AR 15 conquered America”, (May 31, 2022), this “nothing short of remarkable growth” in the gun industry is all due to the AR 15. Busse a former gun executive has been trying to expose the gun industry which he claims manipulated the whole situation to bring us to this point. He has written a book entitled, “Gunfight: My Battle against the industry that radicalized America”. He alleges there was a willful attempt to create the extremism using the AR 15 and thereby bring the country to a cultural boiling point.
Who knows how much the “vendors” donate anonymously to the candidates that have been vetted by the NRA. Whether they are or not giving boat loads of money the NRA Senators have upheld, up till now, the bogus barbarous right to sell to those who can’t legally buy cigarettes, weapons of war.
Currently there are negotiations going on in the Senate between “Republicans” and Democrats in the hope of the former agreeing to some sort of restrictions and supervision of gun ownership. The obvious question is will they ban AK 15s and all their derivatives or whether they will do anything to prevent another procession of tiny coffins. If mental health comes up perhaps “The Republicans” will finally fund it properly. Jay H. Ell guesses that the compromises will not involve too many restrictions on guns sales.
THE SUPREME COURT
The Supreme Court should think twice about their upcoming ruling on lifting firearm restrictions in the State of New York. The oral arguments led all to believe that the decision would go against the State of New York. The Supreme Court have to get real. Again they acting as historical experts in the interpretation of the Constitution. On the one hand they believe the Constitution must be interpreted as it was literally written. On the other they allow twenty first century automatic weapons to be available to all and sundry who obviously are not part of an eighteen century “well regulated militia”. Then they claim they can interpret that the Constitution didn’t allow women the right to control their bodies because it isn’t written into the Constitution! So they are interpreting what the Founders must have meant in the eighteenth century even though they weren’t aware of fetal hearts and abortion pills.
Then as employers they are investigating a leak which is not a criminal offense by proceeding without warrants to examine private material. This is not consistent with what they have maintained on employers’ rights over employees.
There is little wonder that their approval rate is at an all time low.
But the legislators cannot just blame the Supreme Court they need to take the initiative and legislate as they are ultimately answerable to the electorate which are being ignored on gun legislation.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Apparently ‘Enough is not Enough” as they have been a dozen mass shootings in America with nine dead since the Uvaide Texas massacre . (A mass shooting is defined as a situation where there are at least four victims either dead or injured.)
By the way for those who want to blame video games Japan is a far big viewer than America that has two hundred and fifty times more mass shootings.
Biden needs to go around the country and campaign for the banning of semi automatic guns and the initiation of gun control laws that have been widely accepted. He has to make this a central point of the midterm platform. The citizens have to know what they are getting when they vote for NRA vetted legislators.
GUESS WHAT?
Trump believes that the Georgia "Republican" primary for Governor was rigged. His candidate lost by close on fifty percent. Biden was on target when he said he would be lucky if the "Republican" candidate in 2024 would be Trump.
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