Saturday, June 18th I was fortunate enough to be included in the Pride On High, a march from the Ohio Statehouse to Goodale Park. It was a vocal, mobile mass of humanity expressing the desire to be accepted. I spent a good amount of time wondering why, today, in the 21st century, they aren’t.
When I approached, in my Pride t-shirt, a rainbow bandana wrapped around my head, they welcomed me, warmly. We were marching together, a movement. Ostensibly, we were rallying for different causes, but I wanted them to know I endorsed and supported theirs and admired their fortitude and resilience in the face of such opposition in the form of national and state legislature.
Indeed, we were standing in front of the building where Senate Bill 215 had recently become law. It allows people, qualified people, specifically, to carry a concealed weapon without the burden of training or acquiring a permit. Qualified people include almost everyone over twenty-one who had never been convicted of a felony. In a nod to artificial tradition, they call it “constitutional carry.” It adds a distinct air of historic importance, contrived and foolish, though it is. We all know, though, how the tea party and MAGA people fume and fulminate when anybody has the nerve to question anything labeled “constitutional.
The members of Moms Demand Action were not beaten though, they were organized, passing out placards and extolling the virtues of patience and diligence. It’s a long march, but they aren’t going to stop, ever.
They know, better than most, the difficulties facing any kind of gun control, when you need the votes of politicians like Senator John Cornyn, R Texas, who walked out of a meeting on gun control because “he didn’t know what they had in mind, but I’m through talking.” Apparently, he was done talking about incentives for states to enact red-flag laws. Laws that would allow law enforcement to confiscate guns from anyone who was deemed a threat. His party, the GOP makes the spurious claim they are the party of the law enforcement community, but not enough to trust them with something so important as the confiscation of guns.
Moms Demand Action may not have believed, as I did, that any attempt at common sense gun control was only an circus act performed by republicans who have accepted large campaign contributions from the NRA. An act, from which they could exit as soon as the news cycle ends. They persevere.
Moms Demand Action has heard the same awful plans we all have about fortifying schools into something approaching the command bunkers associated with the launch officers for nuclear weapons. Or prisons, surrounded by concertina wire, and concrete walls, where the teachers look more like combat riflemen patrolling the DMZ in South Korea. Forget the land of the free, we’ll need to settle for home of the brave. Teach those kids to take cover, don’t run in a straight line, zig zag, you’re much more difficult to hit, don’t bunch up one mortar round will take you all out. We need to start young, prenatal, maybe, forget white noise, play sounds of battle to the unborn so they won’t panic when they hear it in preschool.
Of course, that only covers school. What about daycare centers, pediatrician’s offices, grocery stores, and all the other places filled with people? We’ll have to fortify them, as well, they are “soft targets,” ripe for the taking.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” How do you know who the bad guys are until they start shooting? You can’t just shoot anybody with a gun these days, there are too many of them. And, then you’re the bad guy.
No, the only answer is to reinstitute Selective Service and put soldiers everywhere. It will be expensive, and intrusive, possibly we will have to forfeit some civil rights, but we’ll be safe. One nice thing about totalitarian, oppressive police states, they really crack down on crime.
Or we could make it more difficult to get guns. It seems the easier it becomes to have a gun the more people are getting shot. Stand Your Ground hasn’t stopped the carnage, concealed carry is only a way to add a little comfort to a country panicked about the unbelievable number of guns in our country. Constitutional Carry will only add to the problem, even the police won’t know who has a gun.
And the problem is the guns. The sheer mind-numbing quantity of guns, the ease with which they are purchased, and carried. In most of America we have made it easier to shoot than not to shoot. So, that’s what we do. It’s always the same tired koan, what are we going to do about all these shootings? “Well, nothing to do but add more guns.”
What can we do about it? That’s the question.
I’m going to donate to Moms Demand Action. And, I’m going to join, download the app. I’m going to vote, and I’m going to advocate. I’m going to support them and hope we can do something to avert future tragedy. They can’t do it alone they need all of us.
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Elvert Barnes on Flickr under CC license
