Tuesday, August 27, 2019

The Mass Shooting Miasma

 
 
As expected and right on cue, the blame for a trio of recent mass shootings has devolved into a partisan blame game replete with profane language and vicious name-calling, in addition to calls for gun confiscation and the all too familiar ridiculous posturing by politicians.  Numerous Democrat candidates for president seized upon the opportunity, exploiting the tragedy while laying the blame for the El Paso shooting squarely on President Trump's shoulders.  Predictably, gun-grabbers blame the NRA and its millions of members, while media political pundits simply blame the other party.  Lost in the maelstrom is the obvious — the shooters are to blame, and it's a shameful American problem.

President Trump is no more responsible for mass shootings during his tenure in the White House than Barack Obama was for the shooting at the church in Charleston, nor the Sandy Hook school massacre.  On the precipice of a presidential election, it's convenient for Democrats and their media lapdogs to blame Trump.  The president's harshest critics and fiercest opponents easily defaulted to the "racist" canard, personally blaming the president's comments for the carnage.  At this juncture, the race card is all they have in their toolbox.  Combined with the noticeably fizzled and pitifully faltering campaigns of at least 20 of the 24 Democrat candidates, blaming Trump for the horrific events in Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton will not reverse their inevitable demise.  "Beto" O'Rourke's vulgar performance in front of television cameras was par for course; he's prone to embarrassing himself. 

The increasing frequency with which mass shooting events are occurring also significantly increases the ferocity of those who demand that guns be outlawed altogether.  Disinformation and urban myths account for a majority of negativity directed at the NRA and its members.  The NRA does not support gun violence.  Furthermore, the NRA does not sell guns, and the NRA doesn't promote mass murder.  Far from it, but the overarching goal of the anti-gun lobby is to punish law-abiding citizens, turning  gun-owners into outlaws and leaving people defenseless against criminals.  Furthermore, gun confiscation will not make America safer — defenseless people are never safe.  Does anyone really believe that criminals who aren't supposed to have illegally obtained guns in their possession are going to willingly volunteer their weapons to law enforcement?  Apparently, strict gun laws don't prevent mass shootings, as evidenced by the most recent weekend of carnage in Chicago, in which 47 people were shot and 7 died

It's time that America address the truth — deranged, mentally unstable sociopaths are responsible for their heinous actions.  There is no debate, yet the insanity continues.  The cabal of news network media savants and their mewing minions have but one narrative: Orange Man Bad, and it's his fault.  Adding to the idiocy is declaring the motive for murder based on political party affiliation.  The predominantly liberal media are not alone in their armchair psychoanalysis of the criminal mind; numerous conservative media outlets were quick to point out that both shooters in El Paso and Dayton were adherents of Marxist ideology — according to their social media accounts.  And while musings on social media may provide law enforcement investigators a glimpse into the mind of a mass murderer, it's obscene to assume that political party preference determines mental well-being.

Finally, there are no easy answers or quick fixes on how to stop the mentally unhinged from obtaining guns and raining down mayhem on innocents.  It's an enormous problem that  plagues America and will require a multi-pronged approach to stop the carnage and prevent future mass shooting events.  Whether it's a single event, such as what happened over the course of the past 10 days in three different cities, or the ongoing reign of gun violence in some of America's crime-ridden metro areas, it must be stopped.  What also needs to end is the disingenuous assignment of misplaced blame, which does nothing to address the problem, nor does it add to the national conversation.  The American public is appealing to leaders who are willing to lay down their differences, come to the table, and participate in honest discussions.

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