SCOTUS & Guns

So, it has now been, what, two weeks, since the Roe v. Wade SCOTUS “decision” was “leaked”. And it (the actual decision) has not yet surfaced, i.e., released. So, does that mean they are still actually arguing? And in the meantime, states are beginning to move (pass laws) that assume Roe v. Wade is dead and they are free to do whatever they want.  And it amazes me. We keep hearing that maybe 60% of the American public favor continuation of legalized abortion. But apparently, SCOTUS cares not about the American public. They care only about what the religious right thinks and says.  And the states. Wow!, Oklahoma just passed a bill banning abortion after six weeks, i.e., when women might barely know they are pregnant.  And similar to other states, they authorize unconnected citizens to sue anyone having an abortion, providing one, or assisting in any way, e.g., anyone driving someone to an abortion could be sued for $10,000. So, Oklahoma has opted for “vigilante justice”.  Makes you wonder when they will authorize their citizen anti-abortion guardians to use guns to enforce their opposition.

And so it goes, as America turns into a Land of Vigilantism.  Nazi’s everywhere you turn.

And speaking of Nazi’s, we have that mass shooting in Buffalo aimed at killing people of color. Ten innocents were killed. The 10 people killed, and an additional three injured, made this weekend's racially motivated attack at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket the deadliest mass shooting of the year in the United States. It is also the 198th mass shooting in 2022. With just over 19 weeks into the year, this averages out to about 10 such attacks a week. And even more recently, the Texas school shooting upped the toll, in which 19 kids and 2 adults were killed. Think of that people—19 innocent children!

The tally comes from the Gun Violence Archive, an independent data collection organization. The group defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, excluding the shooter. The full list of mass shootings in 2022 can be found here.

Prior to the Buffalo attack, the largest-scale mass shooting this year was at a car show in Dumas, Ark., on March 19. That attack killed one person and injured 27. Mass shootings, as is well known by now, are a common recurrence in the United States. Around this time last year, the U.S. had experienced a similar number of mass shootings: also about 10 a week. 

We ended 2021 with 693 mass shootings, per the Gun Violence Archive. The year before saw 611. And 2019 had 417.

The massacres don't come out of nowhere, says Mark Follman, who has been researching mass shootings since 2012, when a gunman killed 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. 

"This is planned violence. There is, in every one of these cases, always a trail of ... behavioral warning signs," he told NPR earlier this month.

Follman, the author of a new book, Trigger Points, says the role of mental health is also widely misunderstood.

"The general public views mass shooters as people who are totally crazy, insane. It fits with the idea of snapping, as if these people are totally detached from reality." "That's not the case", he said. There's "a very rational thought process" that goes into planning and carrying out mass shootings.

The suspect in the Buffalo attack left behind a racist screed, donned body armor, and livestreamed the attack. 

And yet, we do nothing to stop this problem, and we will not even begin to visit the subject of GUNS, i.e., we have too many guns, and way too many automatic weapons that enable mass shootings.

So what should we do? Well, NOT Thoughts and Prayers surely. That is the precise opposite of doing something.  It’s really astonishing that organized religion refuses to deal with the Gun Lobby. Of course, organized religion and the Gun Lobby constitute the current republican party. And when that party controls 50% of our US Senate, we can do nothing.

I am unsure what we should do about gun violence in America. I think America is now alone in this category of organized gun violence against innocent civilians.  But we really do need to get guns off the street, and out of people’s closets.  Which guns? I am unsure. The Gunners of the country say, NO, they are protected by Second Amendment. But as I best understand that Amendment, it argues for a State Militia, not individual ownership of automatic weaponry.  My best take on this is that we need to strip all households of all automatic weaponry. So, maybe no household should own more than ONE SINGLE SHOT Pistol, and ONE Double Barrel rifle/shotgun. Full Stop.  I know, I know. I can hear the screams of anguish.  But those are the same screams to be heard by any proposal to limit guns. ANY! So, why not go for one that might work.  Now how we manage to retrieve all the now illegal guns from homes is a difficult question.  But maybe we can release all those folks imprisoned now for illegal drug usage, and replace them with folks owning illegal guns. Nice, Huh?

But whatever we do, it must pass through the halls of Congress, and at least some republicans must possess the cajones and the ethics to vote in favor. And that might be tough, since there seem no such republicans left on the planet.

Well, we will see what happens. I wonder how long it will be before the next idiot decides to shoot up some preschool somewhere in America. Stay tuned, folks.