Guns don’t kill people. Clowns do
A massacre in Texas, a critical mass of inaction — by all of us
In Stephen King’s “It,” a small town has been terrorized for decades by an evil clown. He calls himself “Pennywise.”
In our world, America has been terrorized for decades by evil clowns. They call themselves “senators.”
As they learn more about Pennywise, children realize that disappearances have been taking place just about forever, and the town’s adults are kind of resigned to them. They’re like the “white moderates” that Martin Luther King Jr. railed about in the 1960s — people who know something horrid is happening, but don’t do enough to stop it.
Which leads us to two questions (answer “true” or “false”):
I am appalled by the slaughter of 19 fourth graders and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.
In the 10 days since then, I have not done a damn thing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
If you answered “true” to both of those questions, Congratulations! You’re a white moderate!
It’s not that we don’t care. Nationwide protests are planned for June 11. There have been student walkouts and dramatic front pages and customized coffins, impassioned words from people like Jimmy Kimmel and Steve Kerr and Amanda Gorman, donations to charities like Everytown and the family of teacher Irma Garcia and her husband, Joe, who died of a heart attack two days after she was gunned down.
But none of that will get through to Mitch McConnell and his pistol-packin’ prostitutes, bought and paid for by the gun lobby. Those monsters in clowns’ clothing are betting that our passion is even smaller than their compassion, that our resolve is even weaker than their conscience, that our good souls are shouted down by their assholes.
And they’ve won that bet — year after year after year, tragedy after tragedy after tragedy.
NRA-backed senators (cough, Republicans) blame mental illness or lax school security or slow-reacting police officers, but those arguments are like the red balloons Pennywise used to distract his victims. He didn’t want them to see just how evil he was.
One of the first things Donald Trump did as president was make it easier for mentally ill people to buy guns. All the school security in the world wouldn’t have stopped the racist massacre in a Buffalo supermarket 10 days before Uvalde. And when assault rifles can fire more than 10 rounds per second, lots of lives are going to be lost no matter how fast police respond.
It’s the guns, stupid. Look at this from the Financial Times — and keep in mind that the U.S. lifted its ban on assault weapons in 2004.
I wrote a satire after the 2016 Pulse nightclub slaughter in Orlando because there is a huge, cynical part of me that believes our gun laws won’t change until the people whom the MAGA bigots hate — Muslims, Blacks, Latinos, LGBTQ — buy AR-15s, or at least tweet photos of themselves holding assault weapons. America, what a country!
History is on my side. California, led by Gov. Ronald Reagan, banned the open carry of guns in 1967. Why? Because Black Panthers started carrying them.
If we give more than a hand-wringing damn about mass shootings, maybe we should try a different approach. For example: I will gladly donate $100 to any credible group that calls itself Make Ted Cruz’s Life A Living Hell.
I’m not suggesting anything illegal. What I am saying is that people who are more passionate and politically astute than I could target the weakest pro-gun senators, then pressure them in their home states to ban assault weapons and strengthen mental health screening.
Maybe chambers of commerce have more clout than the gun lobby, so you boycott merchants or get companies to relocate. Maybe you get students to stop going to school. Maybe you protest every damn day until you wear down their resolve.
The media could do better, too. Lots of people go into journalism to make the world a better place, but when something like Uvalde happens, the first reaction is to ask ourselves, “How can we do a 63-part series that wins us a Pulitzer?” rather than “How can we save lives?”
There are mass shootings every day — lots of them. Don’t ignore those tragedies just because they’re in the 10 Bodies or Less express line. As dozens of hearts get broken, hundreds more get hardened. That’s even scarier than an evil clown.
Murphy Slaw
Something old: Bigotry is an age-old problem. We’ll never overcome it, but sometimes friends and mentors are the best way around it.
Something new: Some of these words are just bizarre — or is that bazaar?
Something borrowed: “Gone too soon” is the theme this week, unfortunately. That’s why we all need to celebrate life — and those special people we meet along the way.
Something blue: One last image. We’ll be more upbeat next week. Promise.
Thanks, Janet. Scary times.
Great post, Dave. We have to do something now. I'm very afraid for this country.