A Little Light

Well, a 19-year-old kid went to the Florida high school he used to attend and killed seventeen people by shooting them with an semi-automatic gun. CNN reports that this is the ninth-deadliest mass shooting is "modern" United States history (as this CNN article points out, we say "modern" because it's hard to get data on mass shootings before 1949). ABC News points out that six weeks in to 2018, there have been 18 shootings at a school in the United States. That averages out to three shootings a week! This needs to stop.

The shooting was perpetrated by a person who is obviously mentally ill. I'm not a mental health expert, but even a non-expert like me knows it's not rational to walk into a high school and kill 17 people. The shooting also comes about two weeks before the one-year anniversary of when President Trump signed a bill that revoked regulations created by the Obama Administration that made it harder for mentally-ill people to buy guns. That bill, like any bill signed by President Trump, passed because the Republican Party wanted it to pass. As the linked article notes, the National Rifle Association "applauded" this bill being signed.

Before we go further, there are four things that we have to keep in mind:
1. President Trump is a Republican;
2. The Republican Party controls both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate;
3. A majority of the United States Supreme Court were appointed by Republican presidents.; and
4. Given 1-3 above, no federal gun control legislation can be made into law without Republican support (see the civics lesson here if you are unclear on this concept.)

After the Las Vegas shooting in October, the New York Times ran an opinion piece that pointed out that the National Rifle Association, which reflexively opposes all attempts at gun control, donates heavily to Republican candidates. If you read the piece you will see that the top-ten donation recipients in both the House and Senate are Republicans. You will also see that they all tweeted out that they offered "thoughts and prayers" to the victims of the Las Vegas shootings. But those people did not take any legislative action to put those thoughts and prayers into action. Those people extended thoughts and prayers in response to the Florida shooting. According to this piece, President Trump received over $30 million in from the National Rifle Association during his presidential run. President Trump also offered his "prayers and condolences" to the victims of the Florida shooting.

There's nothing wrong with praying, of course. I pray regularly and probably should pray more. But prayer alone is rarely a solution. There also has to be action. For example, Jesus told his disciples to "go into all world and preach the Gospel to all creation." Jesus did not say not just stay home and pray about spreading the Gospel. Unfortunately, past experience suggests that the Republican Party will limit themselves to tweets about prayers and not take any concrete action about gun control. Given the donations I mentioned, it would be shocking if the Republicans did take any action. The Republican Party is responsible for whatever course of action or-more likely-inaction they chose to to take. The entire point of our democracy is to hold our elected officials accountable for the policies they pursue.

Over on Twitter, conservative pundit Bill Kristol wrote,

Reading reactions to the horrible mass murder of school children, I’ve got to think there’s a better path forward than either you’ve-got-blood-on-your-hands vituperative moralism or thoughts-and-prayers nothing-can-be-done fatalism.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) February 15, 2018

I agree with Mr. Kristol that there is a better way forward than doing nothing. As I noted in October, the Supreme Court says there are several ways that guns can be regulated. That non-exhaustive list includes: (a) banning concealed weapons; (b) prohibiting felons and the mentally ill from owning guns; (c) prohibiting gun possession in sensitive places such as schools or government buildings; (d) placing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of guns; and (e) prohibiting “dangerous and unusual weapons.” 

Mr. Kristol and I seem to disagree about what he calls the "vituperative moralism" of pointing out that the Republicans running all three branches of the Federal Government have to answer for their policies. I do not think that placing responsibility on our leaders is "vituperative" (a word that apparently means "bitter and abusive"). I think the criticism directed at our governmental leaders is fair. 

But the blame does not stop with them. Presidents, Representatives, and Senators are elected by voters. It is known whether a candidate accepts donations from the National Rifle Association. The gun control positions of those leaders is an issue on which one can chose to vote.  If you gun control you need to vote for candidates who want gun control. That applies to candidates running in any election from city council up to presidential election. Voters who vote for elected officials who do not pledge to work on gun control have some responsibility for shootings like the one in Parkland too.

In his Notes on the State of Virgina, Jefferson wrote, "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever." He was writing about slavery and, as a slaveholder, had reason to tremble. I tremble about God's justice when I think about the way America's present leadership has decided that children are an acceptable casualty when it comes to not taking action on gun control. But God's justice is not going to stop at President Trump, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell. If we aren't making sure our individual elected officials are committed to changing gun control laws, then we also should tremble at the thought of God's justice. Put another way, gun control laws can change if people decide to change them.

That's a heavy note to end on. I do not want to end on a heavy note. So let's take a moment to acknowledge a piece of good news. On February 13, death-penalty supporters who want Iowa to reinstate the death penalty acknowledged that their attempt to do so this legislative session will end in failure. I sometimes fear that my native state is in danger of being governed by kooks (see the 8th paragraph here). The Des Moines Register has a fantastic story about how the late, great Harold Hughes, the Iowa Governor  ended the death penalty in Iowa. The fact that Iowa decided not to tinker in the "machinery of death" is a little bit of good news.

If that doesn't work, maybe the Bob Mould song See a Little Light will help. I recommend clicking on that link. The chorus and the cello solo are amazing.