We have all seen this film many times.
Mass shooting, national shock and horror, political fulminations and … nothing happens.
After a sniper killed 10 people in a Boulder supermarket a few days after the Atlanta spa shooting, I thought it became depressing and familiar. And then I saw headlines saying that there were seven mass shootings in seven days.
I’m in the news business and I didn’t know about most of them. Five people were shot in Stockton, California. Four were shot in Gresham, Oregon. Five were killed at a Houston club. Eight were shot in Dallas. Five were shot and one was killed at a party in Philadelphia.
Well, maybe it didn’t get national attention because not enough people died, or because they looked like routine crimes, or because there was no “angle” worth noting. But it was still worrying.
As someone who covered these tragedies by returning to Columbine, it is a struggle not to feel numb by their number and magnitude. Without stopping, I can recite so many places that have become synonymous with mass shooting: The theater in Aurora. Virginia Tech. Washington Navy Yard. The Charleston Church. The Orlando nightclub. The Las Vegas hotel. Parkland College.
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And Joe Biden was heavily involved after perhaps the most painful of the mass attacks, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, nine years ago. Barack Obama made him study gun control measures and the two men pushed them with everything they had. Nothing happened, even after all those children were killed. When it comes to Congress, weapons are the main problem of stalemate.
Biden also helped lead the charge, as a senator, by approving the 1994 assault weapons ban, which was allowed a decade after the Bush administration. Few Democrats wanted to raise the issue after that mid-term elimination.
For decades, gun control advocates have blamed the NRA for blocking any possible progress (remember when Donald Trump said he would face the NRA?). But the organization is now bankrupt and mired in investigations. What makes the issue radioactive are the legions of law-abiding people who think that any measure is a slippery slope for arms confiscation, and many are voters for one reason.
When Democrats and media liberals demand that we eliminate policy from the arms issue by passing the laws they want, they are blindfolded. Regulating arms is as much a political stance as it is not regulating arms. It must be a political issue, especially in light of the Second Amendment.
At the same time, Beltway’s paralysis is preventing common sense measures that enjoy strong support in polls, including about half the Republicans. This includes universal background checks and high-capacity ammunition limits.
But all of this cannot be attributed to the GOP. Joe Manchin, the Democrats’ primary deciding vote, will not support Biden’s proposals in a 50-50 Senate. He wants a more limited background check measure he promoted with Republican Pat Toomey, and even that would have to be further diluted.
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One thing I have little interest in hearing about is the problems of the Boulder and Atlanta suspects. I don’t care if they are angry, frustrated or have had a bad day, just how people crazy enough to open fire indiscriminately in public places have got guns. It is noteworthy that a judge recently blocked a Boulder law that would have kept the AR-15 used by the sniper illegal, although no one knows whether that would have prevented it.
So now, as we mourn the victims, the media will obsessively cover another round of arms debate and Biden’s efforts to get something approved. Everyone knows that they are probably doomed to fail. And then, inevitably, the memories will disappear and the media establishment will move on, until the next mass shooting.