By Patricia H. Kushlis

Update, December 21.  Here's the NRA's answer:  volunteer armed guards from the ranks of retirees and veterans for schools trained, of course, by none other than the NRA. Meanwhile, blame the video gaming companies and the media for creating the problem. Naturally, readily available  assault weapons have nothing to do with it:  read it yourself. 

How many hunters live in the U.S.?  How many of them use semi-automatics in
their pursuit of four legged creatures and dinosaur descendants?  Is a hunt for wild game in overkill mode to remain
protected by a 200 plus year old amendment to the US Constitution which in
reality pertains to citizen militias which have gone the way of the dodo replaced
years ago by state National Guards, police and sheriff departments and even
their eyes and ears – private security companies and unarmed neighborhood
watches?

Do the gun-afflicted really think that
they could fend off the federal government’s Special Forces with their home
grown firepower if push came to shove to protect their castle er home from a
government they’ve been encouraged to hate by fearmongering radio announcers? 
Remember how long Osama Bin Laden lasted – once he’d been found and
targeted in Abbottabad.  Wasn’t it about
half an hour?  His compound had high
walls and a security guard and the CIA didn’t even use weaponized drones in
that pursuit.

Or what about that unwanted
intruder?  Chances are those home
arsenals are far more likely to be turned against a family member.  Most murders are related to domestic
disputes. That’s certainly what statistics show.   

I never thought a lethal minority of
about 4 million people (the number of NRA members) out of a country of 315
million or less than .013 percent of the population should be able to hold the other
99.9 percent hostage essentially enabling murderers and would be murderers in
the name of what did you say?  But that’s
what the New York Times  reported from Newtown even after last Friday’s tragedy there although others are trying to get a grip on the tragedy so it doesn't happen again.

Follow the money

The
right to bear arms – is that it? Or maybe the real culprits are far fewer than
the 4 million – maybe they are simply a tiny but wealthy and powerful lobby
closely tied to the right wing – like Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers, Texas’ own
Rick Perry and most importantly the various gun manufacturers and their backers
which have become filthy rich at the expense of little children and their
distraught families.

But then why do private equity and hedge
fund firms like Cerberus Capital Management’s Freedom Group plow capital into
these companies anyway – return on excess cash to make more cash?  Worse, why is the California State Teachers’
Association Retirement System (Cal-STRS) a major investor? Seems to me this
non-profit could and should invest in cleaner funds rather than participate in enabling
the madness too – it doesn't need just to study it to death. 

And why does Walmart sell these serial killer guns in as many as 1,700 stores nationwide in urban areas including the one where I live.

The
Second Amendment

 Let’s not quibble with the Second
Amendment’s words.  They read:  “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to
the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed.”  Read it
again.  Carefully this time.  Consider the context of the clause “the right
of the people to keep and bear Arms,” because that has all to do with the
maintenance of a “well- regulated Militia” necessary for the security of a “free
State.”  It doesn’t mean a well-funded,
finely tuned gun industry with all too many right wing and a few other members
of Congress, the Supreme Court and state legislatures in its thrall. 

Please.  Get it right for a change.

Guns kill people and the greater the
gun’s firepower the more people a single gunman – or woman – can kill.   If Adam Lanza’s mother Nancy had been an
archery aficionado, for instance, not a semi-automatic weapons freak the
likelihood of her son’s murdering more than a couple of people if that with her
bows and arrows before being stopped would have been infinitesimal.  Moreover, it’s highly unlikely Lanza would
have been able to turn that bow-and-arrow around to use on himself regardless
of his mental state.

Other industrialized countries have
gotten their murder rates and serial killers under control. 
Look at Japan, Australia, the UK and much of the rest of Europe. 
Well placed and enforced laws made all the difference in protecting the
many from the few.  Doesn’t mean,
however, that they don’t have problem citizens with mental disorders. Dealing
effectively with these troubled people is another part of the complicated equation this country
needs to address but it’s no excuse for lack of gun control.

The value of transparency

Maybe a little transparency does
help:  on December 18, Cerberus indicated
it intended to sell its holdings in Freedom Group.  Only, however, after the media focused the
spotlight on that holding.  But then Cerberus
is not the only private equity firm to have invested capital in the arms
trade.  Are any others also embarrassed enough
to follow suit?

Have American gun owners never heard of
hunting clubs with locked gun cabinets? That’s what I remember from my years working
in Europe.  I knew a few people who
hunted for reindeer, bear or elk or whatever else one considers fair game near
the Arctic Circle but I think these hunters stored their weapons at hunting
clubs and their ability to purchase weapons was far stricter.  Far more Europeans I knew enjoyed the
pleasure of hunting for mushrooms – which come to think of it can also be
lethal weapons or not – but that’s a different story.

Controls are needed and supported

If you’ve read this far, you will
undoubtedly have figured out that I belong to the 54% of Americans who support
stronger gun control laws as well as the 59% of those who favor stricter
control on semi-automatic weapons. Those are the figures in the latest
ABC/Washington Post poll on this long standing controversy.  The poll numbers are really not all that
different from before the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre last Friday.  Meanwhile, the fearful continue flocking to
gun shows where, it seems, anyone and everyone can stock up for the New Year –
no questions asked.

Does the U.S. then require a super
majority of Americans who support gun control to get laws and legislative attitudes
changed despite the fact this is the fourth massacre of innocent Americans by
suicidal young men within the past four years?   

Freedom of what did I hear – to pack
semi-automatics to be used against whom? 
If only those teachers had been equipped with semis themselves.  Oh yes, that terrific proposal is floating
around the right wing ether-sphere yet again – even overheard in the Halls of
Congress.     

A partisan split – yet again     

And what about Republican heavy-weights like Mit Romney, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney,  Newt Gingrich, and Michelle Bachman?  Where do they stand on the gun control issue? Not to mention  GOP Senate candidate Todd
Akin and the five unsuccessful Republican candidates for the House (including the
controversial professional wrestling magnate Linda McMahon from Connecticut)
who supported legitimate rape during the last election campaign?  Haven’t heard from them about the murders in
Connecticut yet.  But maybe this is because consistent polling over the years shows that although gun ownership has declined that decline has come from Democratic voters not Republicans.  About 55% of Republicans keep guns at home whereas only a quarter of Democrats do according to Nate Silver in the New York Times. Wouldn't want to disappoint the base now.  The lack of logic, leadership – let alone the ethics – of all this
boggles the mind.

Where’s the Roman Catholic Church when
it comes to gun control?  It’s usually
consistent on the question of sacredness of life:  at least its stance on abortion is consistent
with its opposition to the death penalty.  And it's not shy to advocate these positions publicly.
Why has this morally powerful religious institution apparently gone silent
on the Second Amendment’s deleterious effects?

 Or am I just missing something? A little moral education from the pulpit
regardless of religious denomination would be useful right now: generalized feel-good
messages of peace and good will towards humanity during the Christmas season and
comfort for the grieving only go so far.

The NRA and Its Cohorts

Meanwhile, it’s pretty clear that the
National Rifle Association and likeminded organizations – those wonderful organizations that
use their members to front for Smith and Wesson and other gun manufacturers – have
reverted to past form.  The NRA has reportedly
closed down its Facebook page and Twitter Feed – and isn’t taking calls from
journalists although it did – finally – issue a statement of condolence December
18 along with announcing its intent to hold a press conference in the future.

The apparent strategy: Lie low but work stealthily behind the political scenes to
torpedo any and all legislation that might be forthcoming in the aftermath of the
most recent bloodbath caused by the weapons their backers produce and sell to the
fearful – or deranged.  That strategy has succeeded in the past.  Why shouldn’t
it again?  Has anything changed? Or has a
tipping point finally been reached?