Gun Nuts? A Contrarian View

I heard that President Biden was doing a major statement tonight, so I listened before posting my own view.  The President gave a heartfelt, calm, rational statement expressing the hope that we have reached the point where elected politicians may be prepared to take at least minimal steps to prevent the carnage in our schools.  Bravo!

Realistically, though, and as the President himself noted, really serious measures to address our gun violence problem just are not on the table; if the august panel of Republicans and Democrats produces anything, it would likely be measures that have been tried before, or tried in some states, and which have proved only minimally effective even before the gun lobby was able to grind them into meaningless pap. I wish them luck.

But in looking at the problem, I had pretty much come to a different conclusion: The anti-gun folks have been right all along: Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Absolutely true. But we have failed to take their true meaning... the people who kill people by means of guns are the very ones who say "people don't kill people." They are our elected officials, our Representatives in Congress and the Senate.  Of course, they don't pull the trigger. They just ensure there are plenty of triggers around to be pulled.

But to their credit, they have realized they need help! Their cries for more mental health spending are desperate pleas for assistance. "We lack moral fiber," they are saying. "Where can we find it?" Or, "We are zombies of the gun manufacturers." Maybe even, "We have been deceived, and in turn, have deceived and hornswoggled the American public, how can we get back on track?" "HEEEELLLP!" they're saying.

Let's start providing our elected representatives with the psychological and mental therapy they need!  To qualify for help, they could take a little test. Remember those personality tests in the 80s that everybody had to take, intended to weed out "wackos" from (perhaps) an employment pool?  They had those questions like "I believe that I am an anointed agent of god." Sane people knew the answer was "no." 

Our Congressmen and women could take such a test to get the help they need, using questions like "I see no harm if an ordinary citizen wants to buy a weapon that was produced for use on the battlefield." Or "I believe that the Bill of Rights stands on its own and may never be subject to limitation." Possibly even, "There is no question in my mind that my getting reelected is far more important than my oath to the Constitution or my constituents." (BTW, that one is a lot like the "I believe I am an agent of God" question.) Then we could offer them remedial  therapy. They have told us what they need; let's take them at their word and extend a helping hand.

Or, a simpler way - just vote them out. The President can't do that.  We the people can.

Comments

[PiedType]

I'm going to do my best, but I'm afraid it may be hopeless.

[JHawk23]

Indeed it may. There are so many players in this life-and-death game - the public, Congress, gun owners, gun manufacturers, the NRA, the Courts (Supreme and other), mental health providers, police, even privacy advocates. Each has a potential role to play. No one of them really can solve the problem in isolation. Hope is a pretty limp weapon, yet we have to hope that some voters here and there will coalesce enough support to replace a firm gun nut with an avowed but moderate gun controller.