The House of Representatives
passed a bipartisan bill on gun safety 234 to 193 today, , exactly one month
after a mass shooting in Texas took the lives of 19 children and 2 adults.
The Senate passed its version of the bill late on Thursday night
by a 65-33 vote, and it now goes to President Joe Biden to sign into law. It is
the first gun control measure to come out of Congress in nearly three decades.
The narrow bill focuses on mental health and school safety,
and includes incentives for states to pass "red-flag laws."
"This bill is a
compromise," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who led the negotiations,
right before the Senate vote began. "It doesn't do everything I want. But
what we are doing will save thousands of lives without violating anyone's Second
Amendment rights."
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/23/1107234183/senate-passes-gun-control-bill-and-sends-it-to-the-house
If a mass shooting is defined as an incident where at
least four people are killed in a public location, the number of
shootings since Sandy Hook has remained
relatively stable. But mass shootings have become deadlier.
The number of mass shootings since 2012 varies
depending on how you define a mass shooting. Mother Jones lists 43 mass
shootings since 2013, while Vox lists a much larger 1,962.
But no matter how you look at it, there have been many mass
shootings since Sandy Hook.
There are two reasons why it has taken nearly 30 years to pass any more meaningful legislation:
1) Money
The NRA has contributed millions of dollars to members of
Congress. Nearly 80 members of Congress have received NRA money, and John
McCain is the primary recipient, with contributions in excess of $7 million.
In 2017, the NRA spent more
than $5.1 million on
lobbying, according
to the Center for Responsive Politics' database. The previous year's total
reached $3.2 million.
In 2016, the NRA spend nearly
$30 million to help Donald Trump get elected.
2) Religion
Daniel Defense, the Georgia company whose gun enabled the slaughter at Robb Elementary School, presents its corporate identity in explicitly religious terms. At the time of the shooting, the company’s social media presence included an image of a toddler with a rifle in his lap above the text of Proverbs 22:6 (“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it”). For Easter, it posted a photograph of a gun and a cross resting on scriptural passages recounting the Resurrection.
Its weapons have now been found at the scenes of two mass shootings — Uvalde and Las Vegas — that left a total of 81 people dead.
In
Florida, Spike’s Tactical (“the finest AR-15s on the planet”) makes a line
of Crusader weapons
adorned with a quote from the Psalms. Missouri-based CMMG (“the
leading manufacturer of AR15 rifles, components and small parts”) advertises
its employees’ “commitment to meet each and every morning to pray for God’s
wisdom in managing the enormous responsibility that comes with this business.”
And in Colorado, Cornerstone Arms explains
that it is so named because “Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our business,
our family and our lives” and the “Second Amendment to our Constitution is the
cornerstone of the freedom we enjoy as American citizens.”
For
many American Christians, Jesus, guns and the Constitution are stitched
together as durably as a Kevlar vest.
“We are
in business, we believe, to be a supporter of the Gospel,” Daniel Defense’s
founder, Marty Daniel, told Breitbart News in 2017. “And, therefore, a
supporter of the Second Amendment.”
In 1964, long before the Moral Majority was founded by Jerry
Falwell Sr. in 197, Barry Goldwater offered a few thoughts on religious people:
“There is no position on which
people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful
ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever
one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's
name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are
growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom.
They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100
percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral
issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.”
On the way to Colorado in the fall of 2020, we passed through Show Low, Arizona, which is in the heart of the most conservative legislative district in Arizona. Not only did we see numerous Trump/Pence signs, we saw at least one billboard that read
GOD, GUNS AND TRUMP
The frustrating part of a democracy is that sometimes progress
can be made in one area, and it can be reversed in other areas.
Although federal regulation of firearms just expanded, Judge
Clarence Thomas just voided a New York State law that had imposed controls on
the carrying of concealed weapons, thus weakening state control.
Almost simultaneously, the Supreme court just threw out 50
years of precedent and overturned Roe V. Wade, which INCREASED state control
but DIMINISHED federal control of abortion.
Inevitably, the state of New York will do everything it can to
counter the decision of Clarence Thomas, and “pro-choice” groups in various
states will do everything that they can to assist those who are adversely
affected by the Supreme Court ruling.
In the meantime, try not to get too worked up over each decision.
Life is short, and the sun will still come up tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment