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Quit Killing Kids

Bill Tope

    So much has been said and written and broadcast about the mass-shootings in America that it seems perhaps that there is nothing left to be said. But these statements beg the ultimate and most important question: what can be done to forestall such future occurrences?
    Liberals typically remark: background checks; raise the age at which people can buy guns; take assault weapons out of the hands of potential shooters, and so on. So-called conservatives, on the other hand, respond reflexively to prevent implementation of any law which they claim will abridge rights—again, so-called—afforded by the 2nd Amendment. They are guilty of invoking the inch/mile argument, whereby if you relent on allowing gun restrictions of any sort (the inch), then you will open yourself up to the inevitable confiscation of all firearms (the mile). This is, of course, both ignorant and silly.
    The real villain of this tale is the US Senate, where the Republican minority moves in lock step to prevent any meaningful anti-murder legislation. It is interesting that many hardcore pro-gun enthusiasts are also staunch anti-abortionists. For them, concern for children apparently ends at birth.
    Mindful of the inch/mile principle, they say they are safeguarding the interests of their constituents. This despite the fact that 90% of Americans of voting age favor some measures to deter the recurrent and seemingly endless murder of children.
    The enablers are the Gun Lobby—the gun manufacturers, the NRA and others with vested interests in the promulgation of weapons. They have brazenly purchased the loyalty of the aforementioned Senate, who (so far) have never let them down. The Republican Senators are pro-gun to the nth degree, ever-anxious to collect political donations, free junkets and other dividends of their perceived good behavior. One politician, when asked why he wouldn’t vote for preemptive gun measures, answered honestly, that his voters would oust him from office, that he would be primaried. And...?
    Is the possession of Senatorial power so fulfilling and richly rewarding that Senators will do literally anything to prevent losing it? For the Republican Senators apparently it is. Why else would Chuck Grassley be running for another six year term at 88 years of age? It seems almost pathological.
    Another politician, when asked what she thought of the Texas murders, took the opportunity to excoriate Democrats for “politicizing the issue.” Spoiler Alert: it IS a political issue, for political concerns determining what is (and isn’t) done to prevent more Robb Elementary Schools and Buffalo grocery stores. But for this Republican pol, the cold, still bodies of children who were shot to death with an assault rifle were mere factoids.
    Republican politicians are relying on America’s short attention span, hoping that by the time the midterms come round, these and other atrocities will by out of voters’ minds. Don’t let them get away with it. The most precarious ages are fast becoming 16-24 for young Black males and 10-11 for children. How do we stop it? Elect more Democrats; throw those indifferent to kids’ lives from office. In this sense, vote pro-life, not just pro-birth.

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