There
is very little talk of it, and with good reason. With fifty-nine
people slaughtered within seconds at the hands of a psychopath firing
an automatic weapon from the thirty-second floor of a Las Vegas
hotel, we're still trying to come to terms with a world changing
faster than we can cope with.
But what about the wounded? What about those left alive to face a life
impaired and diminished by Stephen Paddock's selfish and petulant
rage? Who's going to pay the medical bills for those facing months or
even years of highly specialized care and intensive physical therapy?
If
this were a plane crash or a train wreck, victims would have an obvious
alternative: sue the operator of said conveyance. But things become a bit
thornier when guns are involved. That's because gun manufacturers
can't be held liable for the carnage they enable.
Thanks
to a 2005 bill called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,
gun manufacturers are allowed to go about their business unconcerned
and unhindered by bothersome law suits, even as their products
place an inordinate demand on public services at great public expense.
Why?
Because, to quote Dana Carvey's Church Lady character from Saturday
Night Live, gun manufacturers are special.
No municipal, county, state
or even federal unit of government can sue gun manufacturers to
recover the costs incurred by firearms. In other words, despite the
fact that alcohol, cigarettes and guns place an exorbitant amount of
people at risk because of the very nature of their products, only the
manufacturers of alcohol and cigarettes can be held responsible.
Gun
manufacturers get off scot-free.
Lest
I overstate their immunity to prosecution, the following scenario
should clarify things: say the man raping your wife takes exception
to her efforts to free herself and attempts to shoot her, only to
have the gun misfire and injure him.
He
is fully entitled to sue to manufacturer of the gun in question.
But
if some cretin is disappointed by the contents of your daughter's
purse and blows a hole in her head? Well, tough luck, bro. Sorry for
your loss.
This
twisted dynamic exists because we the people have mostly allowed it. Aided
and abetted by our so-called elected representation, we have empowered
the NRA's well-funded lobbyists to eliminate virtually everything standing in the way of unfettered and unlimited gun ownership.
Does
anyone really believe the founding fathers could have imagined
Stephen Paddock and his ilk when they created the Second Amendment
nearly a quarter of a millennia ago? Does anyone really believe that
a nation flooded with firearms was their intent?
Besides the NRA, I mean.
Besides the NRA, I mean.
The
NRA is evil. It is an industry trade group bent on protecting and
advancing market opportunities for the manufacturers of guns. Nothing
more, nothing less. Feel free to laugh at their stated purpose of
promoting gun safety.
They
have been spectacularly successful at acquiring power and wield it
like a police truncheon. Their heavy-handed efforts have yielded a
congress too terrified to even suggest moderate gun reform.
Have you ever considered
the similarities between ISIS and the National Rifle Association? Both are fear-mongers. Both prey upon the ignorant and manipulate them
until they're foaming-at-the-mouth angry. Neither will brook even the
slightest, most miniscule bit of reform or compromise.
(But
I will credit the NRA with having a slicker, more well-oiled PR team.)
Their
only distinguishing feature is that while ISIS likes to take credit
for its members acts of terrorism, the NRA keeps an official distance
even as it provides an umbrella of protection under which the darkest
and most-destructive forces in American society can exist.
The
NRA is the mother of all enablers. Make no mistake: Stephen Paddock,
Omar Mateen, Dylann Roof and Adam Lanza were all enabled by the NRA
and its ceaseless, unswerving mission to make the greatest number of
guns available to the greatest number of people.
But
the NRA's most-lethal threat lies in its ability to fund-raise and consequently,
its ability to influence legislation. Without the NRA, the
Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act doesn't happen. Along with
several dozen other pieces of self-serving legislation that enables
the gun trade while essentially flushing public safety down the
toilet.
Again,
in the eyes of NRA leadership, compromise is tantamount to heresy.
It has drummed out members of its own leadership for merely hinting
that compromise might be the best way forward. Again, it's the NRA's
way or no way.
That
being the case, we the people need to figure out a way to shrink it.
Neuter it. Or better yet, bring in the wrecking ball and destroy it.
The NRA is antithetical to the very notion of democracy (a word
Republicans continue to use despite their obvious contempt for it).
Write.
Text. Phone. E-mail. Make it clear to your elected representation—on
every level—that you are not okay with the unrestricted avalanche
of guns flooding our country thanks to the relentless efforts of the
NRA.
Tell
them you're not okay with 559 people having their lives ended or
irreparably damaged because they attended a country music festival in
the same zip code a U.S. citizen decided to validate his existence
by ending theirs.
Left
unacted upon, ask them what we will one day have left to protect.
Our government and the leaders we elect routinely claim to loathe terrorism and seek the path to end it.
Physician,
heal thyself. End the NRA's influence. Now.
