America’s Obsession with Guns
I was driving to work last night and happened to follow a red van with an American flag in the back window, surrounded by bullet hole decals and an NRA sticker. The van had these bumper stickers, from left to right:
- “Charlton Heston is my President”
- “FUBO”
- “McCain/Palin”
- “Out of my cold, dead hands”
License plate: NRA R US
This reminded me of the Teabagger protest where the second amendment was invoked as a means to an end. Recall…..
(We’re here about the first amendment)
…..and if you don’t listen, we’ll be here about the second”
In a Newsweek article, “Why Politics Makes Us Kill“, Raina Kelley talks about homicide in the US. She refers to a book by Randoph Roth, American Homicide:
Even putting aside our obsession with crime-fighting TV shows, we live in an incredibly violent country. That’s been true since the early 19th century when we became the most homicidal country in the Western world—a title we still hold.
[snip]
Roth argues that how we see ourselves in relation to our government—fringe movement or ruling party, patronized or disenfranchised—is at the heart of many decisions to take another life. “What matters,” Roth writes, “is that [citizens] feel represented, respected, included, and empowered.” If an individual feels secure in his social standing, it’s easier to get over life’s disappointments. But for a person who feels alienated from the American Dream, the tiniest offense can provoke a murderous rage. (That’s why easy access to weapons doesn’t help.)
Our murder rate declined in the 1930s under FDR’s New Deal as that…
“increased Americans’ faith in the country, their leadership, and one another.”
Although our crime rates have dropped substantially nationwide this year, people are stocking up on guns and ammo.
The Washington Post reported that gun and ammunition sales are up nearly 50 percent from a year ago.
So, were the people in the red van “packing”? Are they the disenfranchised, part of the fringe movement? Do they have pistol permits from several different states so they can cross state lines with their personal firearms? Are they walking into bars with concealed weapons?
Or, are they all sizzle and no steak?
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I’m not quite sure where you’re going with this, or how it actually has more than a tangential relationship to guns. First off, despite what you may see in the media, people snapping and going on shooting rampages is not actually common. More people are killed every year by lightning strikes in the US than by mass shootings. The large majority of our gun violence is related to gang warfare rooted in the drug trade. But in a country of 309 million people, when somebody DOES snap–which doesn’t happen at “the tiniest offense”–it’s instantly national news.
Those people in the van, though they may be nutty from our perspective, aren’t shooting anybody up. They’re not doing anything illegal other than believing stuff that we don’t agree with. The real problem isn’t that they own guns–100 million Americans do that, including a hell of a lot of Democrats. The problem is that the people in that van subscribe to a version of reality that’s just not real. It’s the isolationism, and the selling of an entirely faith-based political and world view that’s the real issue and the real danger.
“It’s the isolationism, and the selling of an entirely faith-based political and world view that’s the real issue and the real danger.”
I totally agree,but in the meantime, are these people buying guns and ammo? Was there any bite behind their flags with the machine guns on them? Or their flag with the words, “Slaughter Louise”?
Call me crazy, but I believe that there is more than a tangential relationship between homicide and guns.
And there’s definitely a segment of the far right, the militia type mindset, that’s been acting in an increasingly provocative manner, which we need to watch VERY carefully.
But the problem of casting this in the light of guns is twofold. One is that it lumps in with the nutcases a lot of people who are NOT nuts. There’s between 80 and 100 million gun owners in America, but only 4 million members of the NRA, and even those 4 million aren’t all politically conservative, let alone teabaggers and militiamen. I don’t know how it is up in Rochester, but in my rural neck of the woods, even most of the Democrats own guns. My Democratic town chair’s husband has a pro-gun sticker on his icemaker.
Second is that even if these people didn’t own a single spent shell casing, their maniacal form of political hatred wouldn’t be any less corrosive or dangerous. Right now they’re creating a toxic political environment and harming debate without firing a shot.
“The large majority of our gun violence is related to gang warfare rooted in the drug trade”
It’s not you, I’m just wondering…..according to the Department of Justice, almost half of American homicides are committed by persons over 50 years old.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/weapons.htm
So, are all those guys old gangters? Or is it a myth spread by certain groups that might have an interest in keeping the focus off the facts???
There are all kinds of interesting stats there…like that there are more homicides involving people who know each other, like ex-husbands and wives, than by gangsters. But hey, the gangster thing plays well…
New Hampshire has some of the most “liberal” gun laws in the nation and it boasts one of the lowest crime rates in the U.S. as reported in an insurance magazine in March of this year
“New Hampshire reported only 15 murders out of a population of 1.3 million — the lowest rate in the country. New Hampshire was also below the national average for rape, and had the second lowest rate for aggravated assault with only 78 cases per 100,000 citizens in 2007.”
Vermont also has very liberal gun laws and one of the lowest crime rates in the nation.Something like 49th out of 50.
I’m just trying to point out that there is a potentially volatile situation brewing with those who are angry at the government and feeling like their voices are not being heard. I haven’t even mentioned gun laws.
I really don’t understand the argument from conservatives that gun laws will lead to the rise of a Nazi or communist state. The Nazis actually softened the gun laws imposed by the Weimar Republic. Permits were extended from one year to three years. You only needed to be 18 instead of twenty. Essentially, you could not get a gun only if you were a Jew, but they were taking away their rights anyway. Don’t forget that plenty of German civilians attempted to shoot Hitler. As for the USSR, Stalin did not enact extreme gun control laws until he was in power for over a decade.