Desperate GOP Ghouls Blame Everything But Access to Guns for Mass Shootings
As horrible as the recent killing spree in Highland Park was, attempts to deny its causes are just as bad. They’re setting the stage for more such tragedies by providing justifications to politicians to not take corrective actions.
By now, we (and the media) should be aware that a blizzard of bullshit is coming whenever there’s a situation suggesting the need for something other than laissez-faire policy.
As residents of the Illinois community were still sheltering in place, the NRA posted - and kept online - a staggeringly tone-deaf message. “The only reason you’re celebrating Independence Day is because citizens were armed," says a voiceover with a bald eagle image. "Happy Fourth of July from the National Rifle Association.” Adds a tweet, “We are a country because of brave souls with guns who valued and fought for liberty and freedom.”
Fox News Tucker Carlson, desperate to talk about anything but guns, pinned the ills of the Highland Park shooter on women nagging men, social media and school counselors handing out pills.
Anti-depressant meds known as SSRIs appear to be the latest boogie man, along with marijuana usage, and that old standby–video games.
The prescription drug screed fits in nicely with the anti-science propaganda utilized by the right to sow distrust during the pandemic.
Disclosure: I’ve been taking SSRIs for over two decades. They are far from a perfect solution to the angst and depression becoming more prevalent in today’s world. (And, yes, big Pharma sucks.) And I’m perfectly willing to admit that we’re still in the “leeches as a cure” stage in the development of treating mental health issues.
But there just isn’t evidence to make the case about drugs as the facilitator of mass shootings.
Iceland is the world’s biggest consumer of SSRIs. They’ve had 5 gun homicides since 2020; in the US, there have been over 30,000 in that time.
Far more women take SSRIs than men and mass shootings are almost exclusively a male phenomenon. Trust me, if SSRI's caused mass murders, there would be a whole lot of women taking a whole lot of revenge.
Testosterone and easy access to high capacity semi automatic weapons seem to be the two most prevalent characteristics of mass shooters.
A 2018 FBI study on the characteristics of active shooters between 2000 and 2013 found that only 25% had a confirmed mental health diagnosis of any kind. This rate tracks with the population at large as 26% of American adults have a diagnosable mental health condition, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
While people with illnesses such as schizophrenia have a somewhat greater risk of committing violent acts than other members of the public, and substance use increases that risk, the vast majority of people with mental illness never perpetrate violence. In fact, they are more likely to be victims of violence.
Oh, and Japan is one of the largest video game markets in the world. They have only 10 shooting deaths a year; the US has 40,000..
Former Republican Secretary of Education Bill Bennett's idea for how to tackle America's gun violence problem represents a new level of bizarre. During an appearance on Fox News, Bennett suggested what's needed to tackle mass shootings are "exorcists."
Riiiiight…
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It’s the guns.
Studies indicate mass shootings are largely an American problem as we are the only developed nation to consistently have mass shootings every year.
A recent study published in the International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice found that the U.S. accounted for 79% of 139 mass shootings occurring in developed countries between 1998 to 2019.
The Gun Violence Archive, an independent research group which logs any incident with four or more victims killed or wounded as a mass shooting, reported a total of 320 mass shootings in the U.S. this year as of Wednesday.
The US gun homicide rate is as much as 26 times that of other high-income countries; its gun suicide rate is nearly 12 times higher.
From Vox:
In 2008, the Supreme Court effectively wrote NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre’s “good guy with a gun” theory into the Constitution. The Court’s 5-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) was the first Supreme Court decision in American history to hold that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm. But it also went much further than that.
Heller held that one of the primary purposes of the Second Amendment is to protect the right of individuals — good guys with a gun, in LaPierre’s framework — to use firearms to stop bad guys with guns. As Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in Heller, an “inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right.”
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The Supreme Court recently made it even harder for federal and state lawmakers to combat gun violence. In its decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, it massively expanded the scope of the Second Amendment, abandons more than a decade of case law governing which gun laws are permitted by the Constitution, and replaces this case law with a new legal framework that, as Justice Stephen Breyer writes in dissent, “imposes a task on the lower courts that judges cannot easily accomplish.”
Coming back to the Highland Park shooting, attempts to put the shooter’s motivation in a box don’t serve to address the larger problem of “why?” Nor do they contribute meaningfully to conversations about what could be done to prevent further mass casualty incidents.
It’s clear from looking at his internet footprint that the shooter was part of more than one online hate community. He scouted out a synagogue, dressed in all black & carrying a backpack, and was asked to leave. He called Black Lives Matters protesters "monkeys." He posted about hating Jews, Black people, and Asian people. (Highland Park is 50% Jewish. 10% Latino.)
Yet there was another dimension to his internet wanderings, namely places that glorified violence for the sake of violence— posting pictures of beheadings and dead bodies. He also posted selfies taken with blow up sex doll. It’s safe to say his digital footprint was purposely designed to emphasize the violence over any ideological leanings.
It’s likely that one motivating factor for the shooting was a desire for fame. The next shooter is undoubtedly studying this guy, looking for ideas on how to pull off a mass casualty event.
Regardless of the motivations of these individuals, what enables their actions is the easy access to weapons of war. A sane country (like New Zealand) would take steps to make these killing machines illegal to possess.
People that say the shooter was crazy are missing the point. We are the ones who are crazy when we don’t stand up and say “no more” AR-15-type weapons. Buy ‘em back. Shame people. I don’t care how; it just needs to happen.
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@gmail.com