By Brigitte L. Nacos
Not all of the ten victims of the Buffalo mass shooting were buried, when an 18-year-old gunman killed at least nineteen children and two of their teachers in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Since lethal incidents like those in Buffalo and Uvalde have become as American as apple pie, they are by now followed automatically by the same post-massacre playbook: Flags are flown at half-mast, solemn prayer are services are held, make-shift memorials are established and buried under mountains of flowers, calls to pray for the victims and their families are issued, prominent people visit the venues of grief, shock and anger are expressed.
While the last chapter of the playbook is still open in the aftermath of Buffalo, the first chapter is now devoted to the events in Uvalde. Yes, our hearts and souls hurt. Yes, we are praying for the victims and survivors. Yes, we are angry that within two weeks two 18-year-old adolescents killed a total of thirty-one human beings. And, yes, we are frustrated that both killed with assault weapons, weapons of war, semi-automatic rifles that allowed them to kill a multitude of persons in record time.
The gun lobby and their supporters have a standard slogan: Guns do not kill—people do. What a tragic joke! For the idea that reasonable people with guns can stop crazy people with guns was once again disproven in Buffalo and in Uvalde: In the first case, bullets from the gun of a guard in Tops Friendly Market could not stop the mass-shooter because the latter wore body armor. In the second case, two police officers encountered the shooter before he entered the school but, again, their shots were deflected by perpetrator’s body armor.
No other country in the world makes it as easy as this country to purchase assault weapons and magazines that guarantee the largest number of people killed in the shortest possible time. In the United States, the number of handguns is significantly larger than the total population size. And no other country has as many mass shootings and people killed by handguns than the United States.
Again and again, public figures and regular people will say in response to catastrophic shootings, “This is not what we are!”
Unfortunately, this is what we are.
Most of all, the politicians that we elect. Those decision-makers in Washington and in many of the states simply ignore the will of the people with respect to gun-control measures. They are more interested in campaign donations from the gun lobby than in protecting the lives of their own constituents. Some, like the Texas Governor, expand gun rights to the applause of the Far-Right. And then there is the Supreme Court that will rule shortly on New York City’s gun restrictions. Based on the dominance of justices on the right of the political spectrum and the recently leaked draft of opinions on the upcoming abortion ruling, gun-control advocates have reason to be pessimistic.
None of the many mass shootings of the past has changed the minds of Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate. Now, it is time for Democrats to act. Time is of the essence since their thin majorities in both chambers of Congress may not survive the November elections. The House has voted for two gun-control measures. In the Senate, the filibuster requires sixty votes to pass a bill but there are not ten Republicans who would vote with the fifty Democrats. Schumer and his conference must abandon the filibuster rule that the Senate, not the Constitution, enacted. Use it in the remaining months of this congressional session for a host of other issues—with pro-abortion legislation first in line with anti-gun bills.
If there are no actions now, the mass-killings in Buffalo and Uvalde continue to represent what America is, what we all are…
Very true!
If a child of the politicians was killed we would see action, until such tragedy occurs within their
families, nothing will change.
Posted by: Helga Hormozdi | May 25, 2022 at 07:19 PM