October 5, 2017
As more details emerge from Sunday’s murderous rampage that left 58 people dead and injured hundreds more, we are learning just how meticulously the killer planned his attack to cause the maximum carnage. We have learned of the hidden cameras Paddock placed in the food service cart in the hallway outside of his suite and in the peephole to warn him of the approach of law enforcement personnel. We have learned that he somehow brought 23 guns into his hotel room. We have not learned, however, what drove a wealthy retired accountant to murder hundreds in cold blood. We have found no manifesto, no social media footprint, and no history of association with white supremacists or ISIS (despite their claims to the contrary).
We did learn, however, that over twenty years, Paddock amassed an arsenal of 42 weapons, purchasing nearly half in the last year alone. Lest we think that makes him an outlier, a recent study by Harvard and Northeastern Universities found that a mere 3% of the U.S. population owns nearly 50% of the guns (Source: Just three percent of adults own half of American’s Guns,” by Christopher Ingraham, Wonkblog, The Washington Post, 9/19/16). We should bear that statistic in mind as we watch right wing intransigence on sensible gun regulation. Although a few Republicans have indicated a willingness to consider legislation mandating background checks and banning bump stocks (the $200 device that allowed Paddock to convert semi-automatic weapons to fully automatic, ruthlessly efficient killing machines), others, like Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama and Congressman Steve Scalise (who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt) remain staunchly opposed to any gun control legislation. While we don’t yet know if their determined opposition will doom any effort to lessen this lethal brand of American exceptionalism, the hijacking of this issue by a vocal, well-financed minority mirrors the stranglehold that a retrograde, bigoted minority of our population has over our politics as a whole.
This goes beyond the well documented domination of our political discourse by the ultra-conservative moneyed interests that exploded after Citizens United, to the very structure of our “representative” democracy. As E.J. Dionne, Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann chillingly detail in a column excerpted from their new book, the United States is no longer a nation where the majority rules. The minority in control of our country has grown smaller and less representative, to the point where, if current trends continue, by 2040, 70% of Americans will live in 15 states, and be represented by only 30 Senators (Source: “Why the majority keeps losing on guns,” by E.J. Dionne, Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann, The Washington Post, 10/5/17). When we combine the outsized influence the design of the U.S. Senate gives less populous rural states with hyper-partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression, any claim that our country is a true democracy is revealed as farce.
We cannot forget the role of the Electoral College, originally designed to insulate the slaveholding states from being overruled by more populous Free states. It is only fitting that the Electoral College is responsible for delivering a crass, racist ignoramus, who is the largest popular vote loser in history to The White House. The balance struck by the Founders, combined with partisan chicanery, has left the majority of the American public subject to the whims of an insular, paranoid minority gripped by hatred and fear. The truth is that they know that we vastly outnumber them. That is why they stockpile their guns.
#Guncontrol
A powerful, enlightening and thought provoking post! Thank you!