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“We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but
it is the reality we live in.” JD
Vance comment on Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia that left 4 dead and
9 injured.
The school year began with a school shooting and all the
associated irrationality of mass shooting in the US. One of the most irrational comments is posted
above and was made by the MAGA party vice presidential candidate. When I say irrational – I mean that what
Vance refers to as “the reality we live in” was in fact created by his party,
its judges, gun extremists (who are undoubtedly all from his party), and the
gun lobby in Congress. They have created
a parallel universe where there are minimal to no gun regulations, people can
openly carry weapons, people are encouraged to use firearms, the country is
saturated with guns, and the expectation that there will be no problems. If there are problems it is always due to
somebody else – as further elaborated by Vance:
“I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you’re—if you are a psycho, you want to
make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got
to bolster security at our schools… We’ve got to bolster security so if a
psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children,
they’re not able to.”
As far as I can tell nobody has confronted his statement about bolstering security in schools. We just witnessed former President Trump’s near miss as he was protected by a full contingent of secret Service Agents and snipers. Even that impractical level of protection at every school in the country is no assurance that children will be safe. In the case of this incident, an armed security officer at the school engaged the shooter in about 120 seconds and forced him to surrender. By that time, he had already shot 7 people. His other theory is that the increasing numbers of mass shootings are due to increasing numbers of "psychos". That term really has no meaning other than a pejorative one. If he is referring to mental illnesses there is no evidence that mental illnesses are causal in mass shootings. He leaves out the most likely causes of gun extremism and a mass shooter culture as well as easy availability of guns.
The other argument that seems to be gaining traction is
blame the parents. As I predicted this is being sold as a solution to the
problem rather than going directly at the culture of gun extremism. I heard
several television commentators saying this was a “wake up call” to parents who
allow their children to have access to guns.
I really doubt that it is. The
analysis will always be complicated by how the parents are portrayed in the
media, but even without the parents in the picture we still have very easy gun
access and a cultural basis for mass shootings that nobody ever addresses. Having been a kid, I can’t think of a
teenager who could not defeat their parents access prevention security measures
– whether it was reading material, phone access, or weapons.
Many of the same commentators are also blaming smartphones. The context seems to be that parents are not able to deny their children access to smartphones anymore than they can deny their access to guns. They cite as an example recent legislation that bans smartphones in schools. Apparently it is much easier for politicians to limit smartphone access than it is to limit gun access. Smartphones are not nearly as dangerous.
The blame the parent argument may have some application, especially in states where the gun laws specify that parents are
responsible for their child’s use of a firearm. In many cases those laws are
currently complicated by the fact that a child may possess a gun in certain circumstances
– even if they are not eligible to purchase one. The smartphone argument is a
weak one. Banning smartphones in educational
venues and where specific decorum is required – but smartphones clearly have
nothing to do with mass shooting. Not
being able to say “No” to your kid doesn’t either. Gun extremists and the mass
shooter culture has everything to do with it and it requires serious
action. It is time to get back to
reality and acknowledge what we already know from American history. Gun regulations save lives and lots of them.
I will cite what is known by most people in my generation
and a frequent reference to the Old West that I have used before. In the 1960s, 1970s and the years before –
there was no mass shooting problem in the US and certainly no problem with
children being shot in schools. Many middle school students took the National
Rifle association Hunter Safety course.
In that course safe use of firearms was emphasized including treating every gun like it is loaded and never pointing a gun at anyone. The middle schoolers in these courses were
about the same age as the most recent shooter.
They had no access to high-capacity semiautomatic weapons or
handguns. The basic idea was – learn how
to safely handle guns and use them for hunting and target shooting. There was
no discussion of needing them for personal protection or needing to always
carry them. There were no politicians promoting gun extremism.
There is evidence that the period of gun safety extended
back to when frontier towns noticed that armed citizens were problematic and law enforcement started to insist on voluntary disarmament when people rode into town. I have posted the Tombstone
Arizona statute from 1881. There is also an article in the Smithsonian (1) that
outlines some of the highlights of early gun control law including the
association of the Gunfight at the OK Corral with Tombstone’s gun law. Strict gun control laws existed in several
other towns and the 1881 law in Tombstone is much stricter than the laws that
exist today. Today you can carry a gun
without a license or permit in Tombstone. There was a contrast between frontier
towns that had disarm laws and those that did not – with the latter having a
higher gun homicide rate.
A political gun extremist movement has endangered the lives
of every American and made schools an unsafe place. We are well past the time
to get rid of these extremists and their gun violence rhetoric. The reality that most Americans want to get
back to is to be able to walk down the street or go to school and not have to
worry about getting shot. That knowledge
goes back to the Old West and it kept us in that reality right up until the
1970s. The only strong message that
needs to be sent here is that gun extremist politicians and excuse makers need
to be voted out. Even then there will be
a lag time because of the gun extremist judges they have appointed.
Apart from gun extremism as a bizarre populist issue on its own – it also reinforces autocratic ideology. The autocrat playbook reinforces political violence as a good idea. That includes all the autocrats of the 20th and 21st century who typically target the “elites” in their population and encourage political violence against them. The practical way it plays out today is self appointed militias showing up to intimidate elected officials, self appointed law enforcement showing up to intimidate protestors, and verbal threats that the more heavily armed will prevail in any controversial elections.
Never doubt that there is a gun extremist agenda in the
United States. I have pointed out the
features in many posts on this blog. The gun extremist agenda is currently
indistinguishable from the MAGA agenda.
It is more than a little ironic that the mass shooters it creates are
labelled “monsters” and “psychos” by members of this political movement. That is the reality that JD Vance is talking
about and it will continue as long as these authoritarian politicians are
elected and maintain that reality.
George Dawson, MD, DFAPA
References:
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