How mass murder fuels debate and feeds lobbyists

 By Jeff Knox and Chris Knox

         The images are all too familiar – police tape around blood-spattered pavement, horror-struck onlookers, friends of victims bent over in grief, ambulances lined up like cabs at an airport.  Atrocities like the one that took at least a dozen lives and left scores more injured in Aurora, Colorado last week are unfathomable.  As a community and a nation we grieve with the families and friends of the dead and wounded and do our best to understand their pain.  It is our empathy and realization that what befalls others could be visited upon us that defines our humanity and guides our actions.  As we discuss what happened in Aurora, we must remember that we’re talking about real people, not empty statistics or fictional characters in a movie.  They loved and were loved, and the horror of what happened to them cannot be overstated.  We all should take a moment to put ourselves in the shoes of the survivors and the families of the victims and imagine the pain we would go through if this happened to our loved ones.  We should also resolve to maintain civility and respect as we engage in the debates that are already flowing from this terrible crime.

Hard on the heels of condolences, finger pointing, and calls to “do something,” have come the pleas for money.  Barely 12 hours after the most recent attack took place, the Brady Bunch was skipping over the formalities and using the atrocity as a fundraiser.  Brady president Dan Gross barely even bothered to acknowledge the tragedy of the situation when he said; “When I heard the news this morning, first I felt tremendous sadness for the victims’ families.  But then I felt enormous anger.  Anger because once again America’s horrendous gun laws have robbed Americans of our basic freedom – the right to live in safety.” 

Gross then encouraged readers to sign, and encourage friends to sign, an on-line petition calling on candidates to pledge to keep guns away from criminals, crazy people, wife-beaters, and terrorists, but it doesn’t explain how they plan to do it – by limiting and restricting your and my firearms.  The petition is really just a vehicle for collecting contact information from new potential donors, and of course the DONATE link was prominent on the email.  Less than 48 hours later Gross was back with another email focused on Aurora and asking recipients to send in a “special gift” to help him “stop the gun madness.”  They’re not the only ones.  NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg immediately jumped on his “Blame the Guns” bandwagon and his group of illegal mayors sponsored a display ad in USA Today calling for “Action” and announcing a new web site.  The usual suspects are playing ball with Bloomberg and his cronies.

We’re also already seeing these groups trotting out survivors and family members of victims to promote their anti-rights campaigns and beg for money.  All disregarding the fact that none of the gun law proposals would have made any real difference in this case, nor would they prevent or mitigate any future lunatic killer.  But, of course, those proposals are always just “a good first step.”

On the other side of the coin, pro-gun groups have expressed their condolences to the families and remained fairly quiet.  Still, gun groups will use the tragedy and the political attacks it spawns to remind their supporters to pitch in a few extra bucks.  The result being that both sides of the issue will be holding up this heinous crime as proof of their position and using it to sway politicians and to motivate donors.  Both will, directly or indirectly, make a lot of money off of the pain and suffering of others.

Criticizing political groups for using tragedies to further their cause and fill their coffers is like criticizing a cat for chasing mice – it’s just their nature.  What we can justly criticize is when any of these groups, in their own self-righteous fervor, seem to celebrate the windfall such a tragedy represents to them.  In general, the pro-rights groups approach these cases with respect and deference, but they are cut absolutely no slack by the media.  Anti-rights groups like the Bradys on the other hand, seem immune from media criticism even when they blatantly beg for money in the hours after some horrific event.  Gun control groups pounce on these tragedies with a smug righteousness bordering on glee as they blame guns, the gun lobby, and all gun owners in general for enabling the crime – still failing to offer any suggestions that might actually have a favorable impact on such crimes.

Those who commit these heinous acts frequently spend months stewing, planning, and preparing for them.  They stockpile materials and equipment, and if they can’t obtain one implement of destruction, they simply substitute some other.  In fact, the worst mass murders in US history didn’t involve guns at all.  A disgruntled school board member in Michigan used dynamite to kill 38 school children and 6 adults in 1927.   In 1997 an angry drunk, killed 87 people in a nightclub.  His weapons were a few ounces of gasoline and two matches.  And as Mitt Romney correctly pointed out on CNN, Timothy McVeigh used fertilizer to kill 168 people in Oklahoma City. 

As always, whether it’s gasoline, fertilizer, a speeding car, or a gun, it’s the person, not the tool, that is to blame.  Laws need to focus on behavior, and stop trying to control the .05 percent by restricting the 99.95 who are not the problem.  If a person is too dangerous to possess firearms, they should not be on the streets and in public.

Madness is a sad fact of life.  As crime in general, and violent crime in particular continue to decline toward record lows in most areas of the US, random acts of multiple murder remain at a steady pace, but in terms of real numbers, such events remain thankfully rare.  It’s not unusual for one shooting to spark copy-cats seeking the same sort of notoriety lavished on a previous atrocity.  Nonetheless, it is ultimately the criminal, not his tools that make the real difference.

One thing that some sociologists have suggested that might help is to deny the craven murderers the notoriety that they seek by avoiding publishing their pictures or repeating their names.  That’s why you will never see a likeness of the cowards or a name reference to them in any of our writing or on any of our web sites.  The name is out there, but we won’t help make it a household word.  We also insist on referring to the pathetic losers in terms that accurately reflect their character and their actions.  It’s a small measure, but we think it matters and we’d like to see broader media adopt similar policies.  We think that would be a good first step.

Permission to reprint or post this article in its entirety is hereby granted provided this credit and link to www.FirearmsCoalition.org is included. 

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