Thugs, Politicians and Guns

Blog#74-6/21/21

THUGS, POLITICIANS AND GUNS
By Richard Davis

I can’t stop being outraged at the lack of action by politicians on the issue of gun control. It would be easy to become insensitive to the daily reports of mass shootings in this country but every time I hear about one I become more and more depressed because I know that nothing will change in my lifetime, if ever.

This lack of action makes it clear that the U.S. political system is controlled by amoral, unethical and inhumane people. It is fueled by self-interest and the only time that things get done is when politicians think they can get more votes or more financial support in the next election.

Gun control is not about guns or mental health. It is about a failed political system.

One has to question whether the American form of government was ever designed to be moral, ethical or humane. Those who started this republic were a group of privileged white slave owners who treated women not much better than the slaves they owned.

Over the evolution of the country our eyes have been opened to injustice and we have made a few efforts to be more inclusive in the way government operates, but it is not enough. That is why the rottenness of government is reflected in the lack of action on gun control.

Consider the numbers. According to the MSN web site, ” There were 19,379 gun violence deaths in the US in 2020, according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. This statistic excludes suicides involving guns, which consistently account for a majority (roughly two-thirds) of annual US gun deaths. In 2020, Gun Violence Archive found there were 24,090 gun suicides. Since Gun Violence Archive started tracking firearm violence in 2013, annual gun violence deaths generally fluctuated between 12,000 and 15,000. The next highest year after 2020 was 2017, when there were 15,718 gun violence deaths.”

What these numbers tell me is that politicians have decided that the lives of nearly 45,000 Americans a year are not as important as preserving a voting base of rabid gun owners and gun lobby donors. After all, these people are dead and they can’t vote. I suspect most of the gun supporting politicians have calculated that the families of these dead people probably don’t vote in large numbers and they know that the anti-gun lobby has never been a powerful enough political force.

So the politicians find ways to sanitize the next mass shooting and hide behind comments such as, “Now is not the time for politics while we grieve for those who have been lost.” Those politicians don’t give a rat’s ass about lost lives because they know that the public will soon become less interested in gun control if the politicians simply stall and move on to the next issue.

These politicians should be forced to attend support group meetings all over the country for families who have lost loved ones to gun suicide. They need to spend a few days in a locked room in a hospital emergency room and wait with seriously disturbed people who cannot be placed in an appropriate treatment facility because this country does not have the capacity to care for enough mentally ill people.

There does not seem to be a way to change the political process in this country so that an effort is made to figure out a way to control gun violence. What I would propose is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and ten of his pro-gun colleagues be forced to live in the south Bronx, the south side of Chicago and the gang centers of L.A. for a few months and see what happens on the streets as innocent children are caught in the crossfire of thugs who value human life as little as they do.

After all, the only thing that distinguishes the thugs from the politicians is how they use their power. They all worship power and they thrive in a system that is amoral, unethical and inhumane.