In NRA’s America, Trafficking Guns Continues To Mean More Than Mass Shootings And Body Counts

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Three months have passed since America and the rest of the world turned on televisions sets to the horrific news that a deranged young man walked into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and blew to pieces 20 young children and six of their adult educators with military-style assault weapon owned by his mother, who he also murdered.

Gun sales soar to record levels in U.S. following shooting of children at Conneticut elementary school

In the days and weeks following this blood bath, and as millions of calls and letters of sympathy poured in from around the world to families of the victims, we heard over and over again from politicians and other leading Americans that ‘things have changed this time” – that this time some meaningful legislation would finally be passed in America to control the type of guns and bullet magazines, and who they would be sold to.

Three months later, it is beginning to look like the only thing that changed was the length of time it took for Americans to move on from the Newtown massacre, relative to the shorter time it took to get past other mass shootings that have become epidemic in the country in recent years, and for things to return to business as usual for the gun industry.

That’s right. It is now looking like little or no knew steps will be taken in the direction of gun safety, according to most of the reports I’ve read and heard in the American media. It appears that Wayne LaPierre’s National Rifle Association and the manufacturers and sellers of guns they represent are going to prevail again.

Sales of guns, particularly those that are variations of ones soldiers use in combat, and high-capacity magazines capable of carrying up to 100 or so bullets at a time, have soared across America since the shooting at Sandy Hook School in Newtown, and programs have been set up for training teachers to carry and discharge guns on school property if they believe there is a threat. Just this March 15, LaPierre received repeated standing ovations from an annual meeting of conservative and Republican leaders as he continued pushing his line that the only effective way of stopping ‘bad guys with guns is more good guys armed with guns.’

NRA’s Wayne LaPierre receives standing ovations this March 15 at Conservative Political Action Conference attended by Republicans, Tea Party members and other conservatives across the U.S.

That hardly explains why a country that is already armed to a teeth – where there are more fire arms per capita (an estimated 310 million firearms were in circulation as of last year) than any other developed country in the world – continues to suffer one of the highest rates of gun-related homicides in the world.

In the three months since the Newtown shootings, more than 2,700 Americans have been murdered with guns, and not just a few of them by guns stored in their own homes and turned on them by people they know. This is just a few hundred less Americans blown away in three months by domestic shooters, than the number killed by foreign terrorists in the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

American politicians, with the support of a majority of their constituents, responded to the 9/11 attacks by engaging in not one, but two wars that have cost thousands of more lives and hundreds of billions of dollars that could have been invested in health care, education and other important domestic programs. Yet when it comes to an appallingly high rate of deaths by gunfire in the United States each year, it once again appears that little or nothing will be done to further control the trafficking of fire arms or even to mandate background checks aimed at reducing the number of firearms sold to individuals with records of crime or mental disturbance.

Tea Party queen and former Republican vice presidential candidate shows off her gun-handling skills.

In the last 50 years in America, there have been assassinations and attempted assassinations of presidents and other political leaders, blood baths on university campuses, in churches, movie theatres, and shopping malls and on and on. And still the gun lobby, with all of its scare tactics and nonsense about governments out to take everyone’s hunting guns away, prevails to a point where in the weeks following the Newtown slaughter, a record number of guns and ammunition were sold in the country. 

Now, according to numerous media reports, the NRA has done such an effective lobbying job in Washington, it is doubtful there will even be enough members of the senate and congress to pass legislation requiring background checks. All of the talk by U.S. politicians about how horrified they were over the shootings at Sandy Hook School and the admiration they felt for those courageous teachers who died trying to protect their young students, means nothing if they don’t have the courage to stand up to Wayne LaPierre’s NRA and the gun merchants they represent.

For my American friends and relatives, I hope that enough people rise up against the bullies in the gun lobby and send their congressional representatives a clear message – stand up for gun safety or look forward to being thrown out of office in the next election.

Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle (Gabby) Giffords, who was shot through the head in a mass shooting incident in her home state a year ago, and her husband, retired austronaut Mark Kelly, are hoping to push back the influence of the gun lobby with a citizens’ organization pressing for federal rules on gun safety. Our American and Canadian readers can visit the website for that organization, Americans for Responsible Solutions, by clicking on http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/ . I urge all my fellow Canadians who have friends and relatives in the United States to draw this site to their attention.

(Niagara At Large invites you so share your views on this post. Remember that we only post comments by individuals who are willing to share their first and last names. Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to resident in our greater Niagara region and beyond.)