Category: Gun Control

From Greg Fallis:

I just counted. Since I started writing this blog, I've written 31 posts about mass shootings and murders. This will be the 32nd. It won't be the last. Hell, there were so many blog posts on mass shootings I had to create a tag for it; another mass shooting.

The first was in August of 2012, the Sikh temple mass murder in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Remember that one? Probably not. Seven dead; eight counting the shooter. The shooter generally isn't included in the butcher's bill, because he's not an innocent victim.

You know who else isn't innocent? Republicans. Republican governors, Republican state legislators, Republicans in Congress. They may not be actively guilty, but they sure as fuck aren't innocent. Now, I'm not saying these people are okay with routine sporadic mass murders, I'm saying…

Wait. No, I AM saying Republican lawmakers are okay with routine sporadic mass murders. And hey, let's also include Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as being okay with routine sporadic mass murders. If these people weren't okay with it, they'd have done something to prevent it. At the very least, if they weren't okay will mass shootings, they'd have done something to reduce the body count.

But they haven't. They haven't done a goddamned thing. And they won't. We know they won't. So yeah, Republican lawmakers (and a pair of asshole Democrats) are okay with routine sporadic mass murders. They won't admit that, of course. Because that would make them sociopathic monsters.

Wait. They ARE sociopathic. They may not be actual monsters, but clearly they meet the diagnostic criteria for being sociopaths. They have a weak and limited capacity to feel empathy and remorse. Some of them may, it's true, be sincere when they mouth the phrase 'thoughts and prayers'. But they don't feel enough empathy or remorse to actually do anything constructive about it. So fuck them and their thoughts and prayers.

I don't know how many people have died in Uvalde, Texas. First they reported it was two kids. Then ten. Now I think the butcher's bill is 21, mostly kids. Oh, and the shooter shot his grammy too, though she didn't die. Well, not yet. The body count may go up; it so often does. Second grade, third grade, fourth grade kids. Eight, nine, ten-year-old kids. Shot dead.

Here's another horrible thing: we're not hearing about wounded kids. We're not seeing pictures of ambulances pulling up to hospital trauma centers. We're not hearing about kids in surgery. That suggests the victims weren't just shot, but were shot to a degree that there was no point in transporting them to an emergency room.

There are…wait. There were just under 600 kids enrolled in that school. So about 3% of the student body were killed today.

---

I wrote that last night. Couldn't finish it. Didn't want to finish it.

This morning we're learning the names of the victims. Last night they were just generic victims. Today we'll find out more about them. We'll see photos of them, we'll hear from their friends and family members and teachers. Politicians (including Republicans) will mourn them in public. They'll offer the usual thoughts, the usual prayers, and they'll say we must never forget them.

But we will. Oh, their families will remember them. So will their friends. And the kids who saw them gunned down, they'll never be able to escape those memories. But for the rest of us, in a few days they'll just be included in the roll call of generic mass murder victims.

It's tragic. It really is gut-shattering massively fucking tragic. And the tragedy will be compounded by the fact that nothing will change. Nothing will chance because Republican lawmakers (and a couple of asshole Democrats) are okay with routine sporadic mass murder. They're basically okay with a few hundred kids being shot to death every year.

So are the people who vote for them.

Yesterday was the 144th day of the year. There have been at least 212 mass shootings in 2022 so far. Republicans and Republican voters are okay with that.

EDITORIAL NOTE: By the way, SCOTUS will be handing down a ruling on gun rights in the next few weeks. It's almost certain they'll make it easier for more people to carry more guns in more places. We can thank Republicans for that too.