How many times have we heard these completely empty words spoken by Republican politicians over the past twenty years?
Innocent Americans go to church, or, say, to the supermarket, and while cruising the aisles trying to remember what they need for the weekend, a bullet rips through them for no other reason than that the NRA is a kingmaker for Republican politicians. If you remain loyal to the gun manufacturers, then you will be rewarded with:
- Donations
- A favorable rating
- Publicity in NRA advertising and publications
- Ultimately, power when you are elected
If you are a Republican politician, and you seriously speak out about the tragedies unfolding almost daily in our nation due to guns, then you lose your next election.
The NRA will pull a more loyal, nut-job out of the basement, prop him or her up, and blitz you with ads during the primaries until you lose. Like it or not, as a Republican you have to accept the epidemic of avoidable violence that in the past week ended the lives of eighteen Americans. Let me remind you, eight were at working in spas, and ten were killed shopping for milk, chips and picking up prescriptions.
The 65-year-old woman killed in Boulder had survived the pandemic, and after being vaccinated, she was finally getting out a bit — that simple act ended her life in line at the pharmacy. Think about these moments in just the past four years. Lives were ended:
- Praying in church at a Bible study (9)
- Walking the halls of a high school (17)
- Grooving to the music at a concert (48)
- Shopping in Walmart (23)
- Relaxing during a night out in Dayton (9)
- Working at a massage spa (8)
- Shopping in Boulder (10)
Of course, there are so many other deaths each day attributed to gun violence, but the majority of them are singular bursts of violence during acts of crime, suicide, domestic violence, etc. Nothing about this violence is normal, either. It is a disease in our national body.
There are 393 million guns in the hands of Americans today. Statistically, some of those guns are going to be used every hour of ever day of every year. Comparing, inner-city gun violence with the mass shootings, however is how the rightwing Second Amendment obsessed justify the criminal inaction.
“Mass shootings are bad, but inner-city gun violence is okay? You are racist.” This is how they try to turn the tables on us. By suggesting that we are only angry about the mass shootings done by white guys, they try to suggest that we are against the Second Amendment. It becomes another one of those “they are coming for your guns” moments.
First of all, they have a point about the inner-city gun violence. It’s nightmarish, and it does beg the question why when white Americans are shot down in suburbia the nation goes into faux “thoughts and prayers” mode? But when, even daily, Black Americans are being gunned down, quite often also just doing things like sitting in their living rooms, the thoughts and prayers, the teddy bears and candles, the tears and calls for action don’t flash across our screens?
Secondly, I am not hiding my hatred for the Second Amendment. I hate it, and I dare anyone to doubt my patriotism. I don’t propose confiscating guns. That’s a no win situation, really. I would propose, however, a lot of other things to make it really hard to buy weapons; I would tax the shit out of bullets, but a lawyer friend told me that this taxation method would he overturned in court. We saw how the Boulder assault weapon ban was overturned recently. The courts, also, are full of “thoughts and prayers” dummies, whose only loyalty is the idol they worship — the gun.
When they soul-less, power hungry Republicans, like Ted Cruz, get up there and do their best somber faces to conjure up the “heartfelt pain and sadness” they feel, I really want to relive that Braveheart moment when the heads of the Scottish clans are sitting around the table talking about how William Wallace (Mel Gibson) is coming to kill them for their betrayal of him. Suddenly, a dead clansman drops from the rafters onto the big table they were eating at. I wish there was something, without killing anyone, we could do when those Republican senators are sitting around in their chambers, reading the thank-you notes from the NRA.
“Ted, good job in defending the gun manufacturers, the other day.” Boom! A pile of steaming shit flies through the window onto Cruz.
The Second Amendment has zero to due with the Constitution, and everything to do with control, with money. The puppet-masters in right wingdom have made everything a “they are coming for your guns” moment. By doing this, they keep their herd ever knee-jerking ready. Fail to show proper respect to the gun, to the Bloody Second Amendment, and you are the enemy — nothing else you can say will save you in their eyes. They are brainwashed, and goosestep along to the great cultural wars the masters in the GOP make up.
“Watch this, let’s tell them that marshmallows are going to be banned by Democrats. Those dummies will flock to the stores and buy them all up! A run on marshmallows!” Guffaw, chortle, ha-ha, gurgle-gurgle goes the 30-year single malt. “Let’s buy some stocks in a marshmallow company, Breckenridge.”
“Grand idea, Evel.”
The people with the power to slow, if not stop, these mass shootings don’t have a right to say “our thoughts and prayers” go out to the victims. Those victims, tragically, are dead. If they were really so concerned, in the mood to be thoughtful, and “prayerly,” then give some thought, even if it is a Hail Mary, to how we can keep the next ten, eighteen, thirty-two and fifty-eight whose lives will surely end soon maybe:
Sunbathing on the beach
Walking through town
Shopping for Halloween costumes
Standing in line to vote
Renewing a license
Seven of the ten most pressing problems in America could be solved, if there was no Republican Party. We can’t get rid of them, but enough Americans can wake up and just proclaim: this price for freedom, to own guns, is just too high, God damn it.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Zinko Hein on Unsplash