My first reaction to another mass shooting killing nine people and the perpetrator and wounding nine others in Oregon was the futility of writing about the obvious need for action after every mass murder in a country where there are so many of them.
I was surprised the horrendous event didn’t even come up for discussion on “InterCHANGE,” the weekly roundtable show on Milwaukee Public Television where I and other panelists discuss the week’s news.
And appalled Republican candidates for president, along with our own former candidate, Gov. Scott Walker, tripped over each other rushing to microphones to declare mass shootings weren’t a political issue and there’s nothing our country can do about them.
It’s depressing to think in a democracy we could reach a point where there is so little hope of positive political change that mass murders would be accepted as so routine they’re not even worth discussing any more.
It’s also incredible that politicians arrogant enough to envision themselves as president of a nation they call the greatest and most powerful on earth refuse to even acknowledge there are any actions this country can take to prevent mass shootings from being everyday occurrences.
The reason Republicans won’t support any action is well known. It’s because they lack the political courage to stand up to the gun lobby that markets and promotes the weapons of mass destruction used in those horrific murders.
Jeb Bush, who’s been trying desperately to live down a reputation as a moderate, rational Republican that hurts him with the party’s most extreme voters, may finally have succeeded.
Bush was shockingly indifferent about yet another mass shooting of human beings: “Look, stuff happens. There’s always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.”
Bush further demonstrated a tone deafness that’s made him such a surprisingly bad presidential candidate by appearing baffled when a reporter asked if it might be a political mistake to so casually dismiss mass murder.
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“It wasn’t a mistake,” Bush said. “Things happen all the time. Things. Is that better?” Not really, Jeb.
Ben Carson, the loopy, highly educated neurosurgeon who always sounds like he’s on something really mellow, man, mused: “Well, obviously, there are going to be those who are going to be calling for gun control. But you know, that happens every time we have one of these incidents. Obviously, that’s not the issue.”
Golly, I wonder why folks would call for rational regulation of guns time after time whenever guns are used by those who shouldn’t have them to massacre large numbers of innocent people. And I especially wonder why it’s so obvious to Carson that’s not the issue.
296 Mass Shootings in 2015
Walker said he had found one connection that linked the mass shootings that have become so absurdly common in this country.
“Historically, the one constant thread has been people suffering from some degree of mental illness,” Walker said. “In many of these cases, someone has fallen through the cracks without getting the appropriate treatment for mental health issues.”
Yes, that’s a common thread in many cases. Of course, one of the causes of people failing to get treatment are politicians like Walker who are more concerned about cutting taxes for the wealthy than they are about expanding health care for those who need it.
Walker also totally overlooked another common thread that’s even more constant. Before anyone can commit a mass shooting, he needs deadly weapons capable of firing an enormous number of bullets.
That’s exactly what was banned in this country for 10 years under a legally upheld ban on semi-automatic assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines firing more than 10 bullets. The ban began under President Bill Clinton in 1994 and remained in effect until Republicans let it expire without a vote in 2004 under President George W. Bush.
It’s not really accurate to say mass shootings are now everyday occurrences in this country. They actually happen more frequently than that. Only the most spectacular cases are widely reported in the media.
There were actually 296 mass shootings in the U.S. in the first 275 days of 2015, including two more incidents in which four more people were killed and five others wounded the day after the Oregon shootings.
You can keep track of the ever-increasing numbers on shootingtracker.com, which lists every mass shooting in America, defined as incidents in which four or more people are killed or injured.
Every one of the victims of mass shootings year after year is a loved one with families and friends whose lives also are changed forever.
Decent people in a democracy should never entrust the safety of those they care about to a political party whose candidates cruelly dismiss concerns about the mass shooting of hundreds of Americans every year with a flippant “Stuff happens.”
