It’s like clockwork.
A mass school schooling is immediately followed by the survivors testifying before Congress while every major news outlet broadcasts.
I’m not saying the Uvalde shooting is not important. It very much is, and tragic.
I’m saying our leaders and elected officials do not care about fixing the problem. They have an agenda, and their using this tragedy to further it.
What is their agenda?
I have found that pinpointing exactly why corruption exists the way it does can sometimes be distracting. I would rather lay out the major red flags and let the reader decide for themselves.
What are the red flags? I have five laid out here:
Basic statistics
According to an overwhelming amount of statistics, including this one, handguns make up almost 80% of all mass shootings. Of these handgun mass shootings, an untold number of them are by illegal guns. It’s hard to determine the exact number because of how prevalent illegal handguns are amongst young men involved in crime and gang-related activity, but one thing that is widely known is how easy it is for these young men to get ahold of an illegal gun. The other half also includes police shoot-outs with armed criminals. AR-15s (which stands for the company ArmaLite, not Assault Rifle), are in one of the smallest categories of mass shootings. They are in the minority by a long shot. The reason why half the country thinks otherwise is because when shootings involving AR-15 rifles take place, the mainstream media, our politicians, and sometimes the rest of the world puts a disturbingly disproportionate amount of attention and emphasis on it.
With those statistics, you would think that in wanting to reduce murder, policy would be introduced to crack down more on illegal activity, like illegal gun usage, and murder itself. But here’s the thing: we already have laws on the books against unauthorized gun possession, and (ready for it?) murder. The problem isn’t that mass shooters are somehow getting away with killing people. The problem is that the majority of mass shooters are able to break the law and obtain handguns illegally and prove their manhood on the streets. For instance, Chicago, Illinois has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, yet it is in the top 20 cities in the country for homicides.
In 2020, children were shot and killed at a 50% increase from the previous year. The vast majority of these murders were done with illegal guns, and due to other illegal activities. Why haven’t their parents been given the opportunity to testify before Congress? Why have most of us not even heard about these children?
Investigators at the scene of a stabbing in Barking, east London. Pic: Peter Manning/LNP
The London Fallacy
You may have seen the platitude floated around that since London banned guns in the 1970s, they haven’t had a school mass shooting since. That statement is horrendously deceptive for a few reasons. Firstly, London has definitely had mass shootings; just because they were specifically in a school is not necessarily an accomplishment if mass shootings are still happening in London. not to mention stabbings, vehicular murder, bombings and more. To anyone who is willing to think honestly, the facts previously laid out would make it very evident that evil people who wish to do harm to others will find a way to do harm to others, regardless of what materials are available to them. This brings me to my next point.
Evil
There is a narrative that has been persistently pushed for as long as I can remember, and that is that somehow, if one holds a gun, it inherently turns them into an evil gun wielding maniac who wants to go and she have a bunch of children in a school. Not only is this narrative wrong, it is very weak. If guns somehow transformed people into evil creatures of the night, half the country would have killed the other half by now, as over 100 million Americans own guns. We pretend to grapple with this, but it’s actually very basic. The root of the issue with murder in any country is evil. London still doesn’t understand that, which is why its mayor called for ‘knife control’ in 2018 after stabbings surged in the country. Very interesting; one means of killing people was taken away, and it seems like the murderers resorted to murdering by other means. It’s almost as if murderers will always find a way to murder people. The only logical conclusion to these weapon bans is that entire countries ban anything that could ever be used to harm someone else, includingn hands and feet, as those too have been the cause of many murders.
Evil does not reside in inanimate objects, but in the hearts of human beings. As long as our response to murders is disproportionately focused on the weapon of choice, we will never reduce murder. The bulk of the focus must to be on alleviating society of the murderers.
Failed security
In the specific case of the Uvalde shooting, because it is the most recent, this is a ginormous red flag that not enough of the right people are bringing to light. How is it OK that the police chief of Uvalde ordered his men to stand down, and even threatened to arrest parents wanting to go into the school and save their kids? When I ask this question, I know that most of us reading this are not okay with that. I’m asking because it seems to be OK enough, because that police chief was just confirmed as a member of Uvalde‘s city Council. Police Chief (now councilman) Pete Arrendondo should be investigated and questions extensively. Instead, we are wow that red flag to float by while he now sits on city council, and dodges meetings.
I’m very aware that the phrase “the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is with a good guy with a gun” is often repeated in these types of situations, but statistically it is true. The most effective way to stop a gun wielding murderer, is by somebody else with a gun taking the motor out. The police chief who failed to act does not change that. Because ultimately, what stopped the shooter was somebody else with a gun. Just like what stopped a shooter from murdering an untold number of people at a Texas church was the fact that one of the congregants had a gun and took him out.
Hypocrisy
When armed guards are doing their jobs correctly, deaths are prevented. When they aren’t, like in the case of Uvalde, deaths surge. What we really need to be having a national conversation about is why we continue to allow our schools to stay poorly secured, while the schools our elected officials’ children attend remain heavily guarded. Why is it that not 5 months after January 6th, 2021, the House passed a $1.9 billion spending bill to bolster security in the U.S. Capitol where far less people died than in Uvalde, but “security is just a bandaid” whenever the topic comes up concerning our children? If security is merely a bandaid, then ban all firearms on U.S. government property, including security. If one is so convinced that a solution will work for someone else, they must apply it themselves.
But they won’t, because they know the gun control arguments are promoting a failed policy. Our leaders will continue to have armed guards to protect them. One mustn’t need to ask why, because our representatives will tell us, time and again.
The outrage and hyper focus by our officials on what is a small minority of killings in this country is odd, but not too odd if you consider the fact that they may actually be attempting to completely disarm us over time. Considering the statistics on illegal handguns, even if we were to successfully ban all AR-15s for example, we will continue to have mass shootings on our hands. Who is to stop the conversation from shifting from “no one needs an AR-15” to “no one needs a handgun”? That wouldn’t even be as difficult as an argument to make considering the statistics on handgun murders are much higher than AR-15 murders. If one finds this assertion preposterous, I would submit to you that it is not nearly as preposterous as focusing on banning AR-15 rifles, which has caused the least amount of deaths by far in comparison to handguns. If one still finds it preposterous, bookmark this piece and read it again in about 3-5 years. If you don’t believe this, maybe you’ll believe the future.
The future isn’t the only place that will prove this theory true. Just look to the past, when Republican lawmakers outlawed the carrying of firearms in public without a government issued license in response to Black Panthers demonstrating on the Capitol in 1967.
Huey Newton, photo by Blair Stapp, 1968 - "The racist dog policemen must withdraw immediately from our communities, cease their wanton murder and brutality and torture of black people, or face the wrath of the armed people"
So here we are again. Like clockwork. Victims are testifying before Congress, Hollywood actors and grammy award winning artists are emoting on all of your ads, and pop culture will be parroting the same talking point they have always been. This political theater is exactly that. Theater. This is nothing more than shameless politicians and news reporters using a tragedy to further an agenda that actually has nothing to do with the tragedy on which they stand. This issue is about power; who can grab the most power, and who can best wield national fear to obtain it.
It is a game that will continue to take place until enough of us decide we won’t play anymore.