GIVE US OUR GUNS AND OUR GRIEF

Like people across the United States and lookers-on across the globe, I am left stunned and saddened as I try to come to grips with this latest spate of mass shootings and murder in the United States. It struck me that I had written an article on this very issue which was published in the Huffington Post and reproduced here on Linked In, on October 3rd, 2017, after another American-style mass murder by assault weapon. 

I decided to look for the original article, read, perhaps revise, and share it, since it is as relevant now as it was when I wrote it two years ago.  

“In the wake of this most recent mass shooting, are the President of the United States, its people and the NRA, still prepared to say, 

"Guns don't kill people. People do!”? Totally ignoring the fact that people obtain, carry, load and shoot, after forming the intent to kill? And the guns are used for the very purpose for which they were manufactured, to murder or maim. These guns, including the most deadly assault weapons, are readily available for purchase by members of the public, including those who are mentally ill, on watch lists of various types, school children and those barely over the age of majority. 

Will we continue to hear that there is no need for control to keep guns out of the hands of lunatics and people bent on extreme forms of violence? 

Will the official lines being fed to the public still be that there are no domestic terrorists? 

Will the deceitful, those who repeat without thinking and the blind continue to say that it is the Mexicans, Muslims, and Black immigrants who are threats to the USA and the lives of its citizens? 

How much more often will we hear that in America, there is only a problem with Black on Black violence? 

Will certain powers and news channels label all the shooters “sick” and ignore the fact that this seems to be a predominately White phenomenon, while failing to ask what is causing young White men in America to behave like this? 

And underpinning it all, will the twisted justification or acceptance of this violence as the norm and unavoidable, continue to be that the Second Amendment is a fundamental right and freedom which keeps Americans safe? Will there still be vigorous and vociferous insistence the Amendment itself must be protected no matter how many lives are lost or how frequently or loudly the nation cries out in pain? 

It is heartbreaking to see the frequency with which such mass shootings occur in the US and the rush of the usual suspects to support continued uncontrolled and unfettered access by private citizens to weapons, which have only one purpose, to cause harm and death. 

Even more heartbreaking, are the "genuine" statements and expressions of shock, claims of the gravity of the loss and tragedy, accompanied by the use of words such as, "horror", "shocking", “unspeakable”, "tragedy" “unimaginable” and the outpouring of grief and pain, every time this happens; that is, until the next time. Are we just doing the same thing over and over, but somehow expecting change or a halt to the violence? Do we truly care if there is any change or cessation of this murder and mayhem?

Will there be any description from the highest offices, of the White Americans who do mass shootings as "sons of bitches," as there was of a Black American who “took the knee” during the playing of the National Anthem as a sign of protest against social injustice? Or will the mere raising of these questions serve only to solicit the usual polarized answers, without meaningful and solution-oriented dialogue? When one reads the Second Amendment, the language makes it clear that the freedom of access to weapons relates to armed forces and the protection of the state (in times of conflict). It is not and was never intended by the framers of the Constitution to enable private citizens to own large personal arsenals of the most dangerous weapons for casual killing and use. 

And what of the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America? The Second Amendment reads, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." These words relate to the mounting of a militia to protect the country. They were written and necessary at a time when there was no national standing army, paramilitary or federal security and armed services to carry out the function of the protection and defence of the State and nation.  

The Second Amendment has been hijacked by the gun lobby to the detriment of the country. Will there be any perception or suggestion that these gun-toters and shooters are abusing or misinterpreting a Constitutional right?

It is noteworthy that in other countries, such as Europe, with similar socioeconomic, ethnic and demographic profiles to the US, where there is no freedom of access to guns or assault weapons in particular, there are no mass shootings of this sort. Yet, such shootings are routine in the US where there is freedom of access to firearms of all types. Does this escape the attention and consideration of citizens and leaders?

Is the blood of the slain just water on a hard, unyielding earth?

When will this country wake up and say #GunControlNow?

Until then, it is clear that the United States is saying – ‘we may weep and mourn, but truthfully, we love our guns and our grief.’ 

More than we love our sons and daughters?"