Trigger warning Our gun problem isn’t going away by BARRY FRIEDMAN
I
have been writing this column for more than 10 years—first for TulsaPeople and now for The Tulsa Voice— which has resulted in more than 200 pieces on topics ranging from prostatectomies, to escorting patients through abortion clinic parking lots, to a trip to Iceland (twice), to roughly eight columns dedicated to guns in Oklahoma and America. I am, more often than not, flummoxed about how the conversation around firearms has been hijacked by gun-toting blowhards who like intimidating people in parks, astonished at unlicensed plumbers who wax poetically about the constitutional boundaries of the Second Amendment, furious about how indurate spokespeople from gun lobbies go after families of the dead, and overwhelmed by the sheer number of guns in America. There are more than 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the United States, or enough for every man, woman and child to own one and still have 67 million guns left over. (Washington Post)
From the soullessness of the National Rifle Association, to the preening of gun fetishists strapped with automatic weapons to buy a package of Double Stuffed Oreos; to the cravenness of manufacturers who believe bullet-proof backpacks will save our children; to the protestations of bought legislators who suggest arming high school chemistry teachers as the best defense against mass shooters; to the debunked (how many times 8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY
Don’t worry, though. There’s always this.
NO MATTER MANY TIMES THE ARGUMENT GETS REHASHED, HOW MANY TIMES YOU WRING YOUR HANDS, HOW MANY TIMES YOU SEE PHOTOS OF MASS CARNAGE—NOR HOW MANY TIMES YOU WRITE ABOUT IT— IT’S NEVER ENOUGH TO KEEP UP.
already?) notion that a nation’s safety is contingent on its level of gun ownership—there is no issue that hovers over America with quite the pall. So why a ninth column on the subject? Because, when it comes to guns in America, something is happening to the gravitational pull. Let’s start with the dark bulge of the mothership, the NRA. When it comes to muzzling politicians on gun control and stymying regulations in Congress, the public often credits the group with near-omnipotence. It’s an easy argument to make when lawmakers offer ‘thoughts and prayers’ in the wake of gun violence but shy away from legislative action. They also tend to have a pecuniary interest in protecting the NRA’s aims. (Newsweek)
Liberal sentiments had to be drowned. Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. (The Atlantic)
I lied. That’s not a liberal sentiment—it’s from former associate justice of the Supreme Court, the late and very conservative Antonin Scalia. The extent to which the lies of the NRA have metastasized into our lives and gummed up all sanity about legislation is easy to see. Since the massacre at Sandy Hook, more than 100 pieces of gun legislation have failed in Congress. Not one reform has passed.
Keep you and your family safe where you study, work, travel, and play with a Bulletproof Backpack or Backpack Armor. (bulletproofzone.com)
Lately, though, the NRA appears to be imploding. Oliver North resigned as its president after he threatened to release embarrassing and perhaps criminal information on chief executive Wayne LaPierre (and it’s hard to imagine two guys who deserve each other more); the NRA sued its own advertising agency, Oklahoma’s own Ackerman McQueen, for financial shenanigans, which motivated the agency to countersue the NRA for having its reputation smeared (the schadenfreude is truly delicious); the agency’s television station, NRA TV, was shut down; and Dana Loesch, whose despicableness is in a league of its own—she put KKK hoods on Thomas & Friends cartoon figures and called gun safety advocates “tragedy dry humping whores”—was fired. It got so bad LaPierre needed a new place to live. The chief executive of the National Rifle Association sought to have the nonprofit organization buy him a luxury mansion last year after a mass shooting at a Florida high school, selecting a French country-style estate in a gated Dallas-area golf club, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions. (The New York Times)
November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
