Now is the time to pass gun violence prevention laws
One gun owner who called in to National Public Radio’s program, 1A, mouthed the National Rifle Association’s false facts — that the only way to deal with a bad guy with a gun is to set upon him a good guy with a gun; that the solution to gun violence is more people should be armed to protect their neighbors and family.
The world, though, isn’t just divided into good guys and bad guys. The experts studying the causes of gun violence reported that nearly all well-meaning gun toters in gun violence situations add confusion, more injuries and more work for first responders, EMTs and hospital surgeons, and that people with mental health problems constitute a minuscule percentage of mass or singlevictim murderers.
President Donald Trump said the most recent mass murderer in Las Vegas, Nev., was pure evil. Yet, he doesn’t show leadership about the causes and solutions to this crisis in public health. He’s a toady to the National Rifle Association’s drive to sell guns at all costs. I think the big picture on gun violence and its prevention is that we and our local, state and federal legislators have to own “the banality of evil,” as Hannah Arendt once wrote, by which she meant “thoughtlessness,” or “the inability to think” referring to how the Nazi murderer, Adolf Eichmann, couldn’t rise above his own worries about his career, couldn’t begin to “think” (or feel) about the pain of another. Without empathy for his victims, he was able to say that he didn’t feel as though he had committed any crimes.
The thoughtlessness of evil is rampant in this country. Each federal vote to legalize gun silencers or to close the gun show loophole for background checks denies gun danger and thus is evil. Each vote to weaken requirements for extensive gun safety training is evil. (Our gun violence prevention organization in New Mexico has blocked a number of these NRA-backed attempts to weaken gun training laws in our state.) Each decision vetoing a gun violence prevention law by a governor and or a judge not enforcing it once it is passed — a law that would take guns out of the hands of a domestic abuser or a mentally ill person— is evil.
This year, in New Mexico, where both houses of our Legislature passed the legislation, our Republican governor vetoed that bill, adding another evil burden to the public health crisis in this country. Each judge who uses discretion to avoid removing a gun from an abuser’s home and hands has made an evil decision. Each vote to disallow federal agencies to track gun violence and educate about nationwide gun violence prevention is evil. Each vote to disallow the FBI to receive and coordinate reports on every gun felon’s crime in the U.S. contributes to evil.
We have elected these legislators, judges, governors, sheriffs and mayors who say now is not the time to pass gun violence prevention laws or even talk about gun violence. All legislators who take money from the NRA have real blood on their hands.
We, through our fear, numbness from shell-shock and denial of the facts — instead of lobbying our legislators and decision-makers for gun violence prevention; instead of joining the organizations that work for gun violence prevention — have what nobody deserves: mass murderers and an unacceptable daily kill count. The truth, based on rigorous research, says that states that have passed better gun violence prevention laws have fewer suicides and homicides.
Stand up to the NRA. Vote to stand up for gun violence prevention. We are an embarrassment to the civilized world. Welcome to the United States of assassinations.