On Valentine’s Day, the news about a mass shooting at a high school in Florida kept getting worse. More and more deaths were being reported as the news media breathlessly covered the carnage and the aftermath. Because we’re in an era where every phone is a recording and GPS device, footage of the shooting emerged on Twitter feeds from students who were hoping the gunman wouldn’t shoot through the locked classroom doors and kill them all. It’s horrific to watch such violence play out on TV, and yet here we are. Another mass shooting, another call for “thoughts and prayers,” and another day where nothing seems like will change in terms of regulating access to weapons — like the one used in this latest (and certainly not the last) mass shooting in the U.S.
People in Florida — and across the U.S. — are angry. They are angry about the empty gestures from politicians. Angry about the standard defenses of libertarian views of guns. Angry that they have to live with that constant feeling their children may be killed by guns at a school. Angry that any kind of political solution to curbing gun-related violence is met with political power, money, and a consistent media message from those who profit from the manufacture and sale of lethal weapons.
When it comes to the aftermath of these shootings, there’s been a standard script some politicians take. The New York Times has a compiled a list in an op-ed video that’s embedded below. Some highlights of the standard talking points politicians use:
Tip #1: Now is not the time to talk about gun reform.
Tip #2: Enforce the gun laws already on the books…and it’s Obama’s fault.
Tip #3: Offer thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims.
Tip #4: It’s not a gun problem, it’s a mental health problem.
Tip #5: Keep taking NRA money. Keep a low profile ’til media coverage and public anger subside.
Time will tell if sticking to this script will make sure the status quo remains the status quo — while violence of this kind moves us closer to normalizing mass shootings all in the name of protecting one amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Or as that guy “Joe the Plumber” crassly wrote to a father whose son had been killed in a mass shooting in Santa Barbara in 2014: “As harsh as this sounds — your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.”
Update: There’s also a psychological aspect to any kind of regulation of weapons — which this piece on Vox explains.
J
February 18, 2018 at 9:45 amUgh, ‘preventing change’ is exactly right, and depressing as hell. You know how cell phone videos of police violence have changed that conversation a bit? I wonder if those horrific YouTube videos and audio might finally change this conversation a bit. I’m not optimistic, but one never knows. Sadly, I think the ONLY thing that will help is a complete overhaul of our campaign finance situation. If the NRA couldn’t sway elections, not only by their donations, but by their smear campaigns, perhaps politicians (on both sides of the aisle) would have stiffer spines.
Ted
February 18, 2018 at 6:01 pmThe NRA really does have (mostly the GOP) under their thumb. Congress is bought and paid for. The Trump Administration? The same. I don’t hold out any hope for change until, like you said, there’s a fundamental change in how politicians fund their campaigns.