Dayton journalist D. L. Stewart made a connection in this morning’s newspaper between the killing of a Clark county sheriff’s deputy last week and this past Saturday’s carnage in Tucson. His point: Can’t we keep guns out of the hands of crazy people?
Jon Stewart (no relation, I’m pretty sure) made a few points on Monday’s edition of The Daily Show, perhaps the most poignant that “crazy will find a way.”
In spite of all the bloodshed, it would seem according to this morning’s front page headline, America has no will for tightening gun laws. According to MSNBC, for every 100 Americans there are 90 guns in circulation, yet the majority of us feel that crazy folks do crazy things and there just isn’t anything we can do to stop it. Even if it means limiting the size of magazines gun owners have for their semi-automatic weapons that they carry for, I guess, protection. You never know how many gangs might come at you where you’ll need to deliver 30 bullets at your adversary.
I’d like to see some form of gun control in this nation. I know cops and mayors want to see fewer handguns because it is largely these smaller weapons that cause the most community handwringing and family heartbreak due to the havoc they cause. I don’t see the need for the general public to have armor piercing ‘cop killer’ bullets, either, even though former Wyoming representative Dick Cheney voted in favor of keeping them twenty-some years ago.
And now, of course, it is Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin who are calling those who criticize their violent ‘reload’ rhetoric as pointing fingers at the wrong people. Everybody talks violence, Right and Left. Don’t blame us for what crazies do.
But when public leaders use the violent language of revolution and ‘Second Amendment remedies,’ and then somebody shoots a politician, why should they not be held accountable somehow? Have they had no responsibility in directing public discourse and public distrust of government?
Frankly, the whole discussion makes me a little nauseous.
The fact is we live in a gun-hungry nation. The National Rifle Association is the most powerful lobby in Washington. When a politician crosses them with some idea for limiting guns, ammunition, or the availability of semi-automatic magazines, there is a price to pay. Those same politicians are marked for defeat and big money comes into a local race to see they are defeated.
But another headline in today’s paper came to my attention, as well. Writer Amelia Robinson wrote on the idea, ‘Why would anybody want a career in politics?’
And, to me, perhaps that’s even a bigger issue: Who is it who seeks election?
Don’t most people get into politics to make a positive difference in the country and the world? Don’t individuals get involved because they want to make our country a better place? Undoubtedly, there are those want to do things differently than I’d do, but can’t we get along in the process? Can’t we agree to disagree? Now I’m starting to sound like Rodney King.
I’d count myself a public servant, having served thirty+ years as a public school teacher. I wanted to make a difference. I am sure Gabrielle Giffords felt the same way.
So why do so many Americans hate public servants? Cops are bad, teachers are bad, Congress folk are bad, Presidents are bad.
Isn’t that ludicrous? Why do we think that way? Why do so many assume solutions are found in the chambers of a gun? It would be one thing if the same folks who shoot each other most often in neighborhoods were the same who took pot shots at politicians and federal office buildings. It’s not. Most neighborhood shootings are drug related. Shooting cops and Congresswomen are very different. And what is the point of packing heat to a political rally? Isn't that more than a veiled threat?
Why can’t we talk about this? Why can’t we disagree? Why can’t we fill the public discourse with facts instead of hateful innuendo that fires up the public? (The idea of ‘death panels’ in the health care bill still irritates me.)
Doesn’t hateful talk lead to hateful actions? Why can’t we do better than that? Why can’t we accept that our words have consequences and that guns don’t hold the answer in civil discussion?
Why in hell can’t we have common sense gun laws? Wouldn’t that make America a better place to raise kids?
Today’s elder idea: An atmosphere created by violent language + rampant gun availability = an America more dangerous than it needs to be.
We can do better.
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