Robert Williamson for BuzzFlash: Mangling the Second Amendment to Permit Record Gun Deaths in 2020
April 4, 2021
The gun lobby has obstructed common sense gun safety regulation at the cost innumerable lives (Fibonacci Blue)
By Robert Williamson
The gun lobby has been at it for years, pushing the envelope to unprecedented lengths. And they won’t stop until they’ve armed everyone in America. They love to stoke fear, to sell more guns, because it’s really about money. Barely a week had passed after the 2017 Las Vegas massacre when I got a robust appeal for money from the NRA. The NRA always complains when lawmakers talk about gun reforms after a high-profile shooting, but it’s fair game for them to come after your wallet.
Have any Good Samaritans with a sidearm stopped a mass shooter in mid-mayhem? That would be a headline. Think back to that awful January day in 2011 when Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head & 9 others were killed & 18 wounded. A well-intentioned guy with a firearm saw what was happening, and he ran over to take out the shooter who was pinned down by a couple of brave folks. One of the restrainers (a retired Army colonel) told the guy: “Put away your gun. The police may think you’re the shooter.” There’s the problem: when chaos reigns in a firearm massacre, how do you know who’s the good guy? They only wear white hats in movies.
A recent decision by the 9th Circuit Court ruled, in Hawaii, that open carry of firearms isn’t absolute, and that—according to Judge Jay Bybee (who wrote the majority opinion)—“government has the power to regulate arms in the public square.”
One “gun” Hawaiians can legally carry is a big wave surfboard, commonly called a “gun” (short for “elephant gun”, for taking on massive swells), but I digress.
Another bit of linguistic gymnastics is the term used for civilian versions of assault weapons: “modern sporting rifle”. What sport are they really promoting? I know, there are competitions using these firearms, but way too often we’ve seen the lethal trail left in their wake: Columbine, Sandy Hook, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, the list goes on. And the gun guys will say few gun deaths are caused by these firearms. True, but they remain the weapon of choice for mass shooters. Call ‘em what they really are, folks: mayhem machines. That’s what they’re designed to do, and they’re very efficient.
One more linguistic sleight-of-hand of theirs is “gun-free zones”, the place, according to guy guys, where most mass shootings occur. This is a familiar canard. Most car accidents happen close to home, so one might falsely assume don’t drive close to home. Actually mass shootings happen anywhere. Consider these examples: (1) the U.S. Capitol when two Capitol Police Officers (Officer Jacob Chestnut & Detective John Gibson) were killed on July 24, 1998; (2) the D.C. Naval Shipyard in Sept. of 2013, where the gunman shot & killed the guard at the front gate & took the guard’s assault weapon to go on his rampage inside, killing 12 individuals: (3) The Washington D.C. Police Dept. where three law enforcement individuals were killed (two FBI Special Agents, Martha Dixon Martinez and Michael Miller, and Police Sgt. Henry J. Daly) by a gunman using a Tec-9 assault weapon on Nov. 22, 1994; and (4) Fort Hood (Texas) Army Base, where on Nov. 5, 2009, 13 were killed. Again, mass shootings erupt anywhere, period.
The gun guys talk of their rights being chipped away. You’ll never hear them mention that gun deaths in 2020 surpassed car fatalities, 43,535 to 42,060 (sources: Gun Violence Archive; and National Safety Council). That’s more notches than any sidearm can hold.
There are specific things we can and should do to stop the carnage, evidence-based reforms like background checks, safe storage, assault weapons bans, etc. We can walk and chew gun at the same time: respect the Constitution and make us safer. But how about we stop twisting language to make arming ourselves to the teeth more palatable? More Americans have died from gunfire since 1970 than all U.S. combat fatalities in all our wars going back to the American Revolution. We don’t need to include language among the casualties.
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