by
dominique DiPrima
We hardly talked about Aurora. Colorado on my show early on the Friday morning after it happened. True, few details had come out yet, but we already knew it was going to be one of the bloodiest killing rampages in U.S. history. It was Radio Free Friday, so we really could have spent more time on it. It is a riveting and horrendous tale with so many sensationalistic details…A masked killer wearing body armor, a midnight Batman screening, 58 injured, 12 dead. I believe we did not talk about it because we are becoming accustomed to gun rampages in the news. Maybe we have run out of things to do and say. What is there to say? It’s tragic and horrible. We feel for the victims, for their families, for the communities. We pray. What else is there to do? Is it safe to go anywhere at all? How do we protect our children? How can we stop this from happening again?
Had it happened in politics (remember Gabrielle Giffords?) we would show momentary partisan unity, decry the current tone of our political discourse, wring our hands and, in a short time go back to bashing as usual.
Had it happened at a hip-hop concert or movie (remember Menace to Society?) we would demonize the music and wring our hands. Some rappers and hip-hop looking types would be harassed and profiled and then life would go on.
If the venue was a school we’d point our fingers at bad parenting, video games and Goth culture, wring our hands and call in some counselors (remember Columbine?) But after a few months it would be business as usual.
If it was a military setting (remember Fort Hood) we’d talk about terrorism, wring our hands and fan the flames of fear around Muslim culture…But take real action? Probably not.
If the tragedy struck a college we would find out what a creepy loner the student was. Blame the campus security or administration, wring our hands…And nothing would really change.
And almost always, regardless of the setting (unless the killer was Black) we would hear endless psychological analysis about the perpetrators pain and isolation or mental illness.
We live in a culture of violence. It’s not just hip-hop, it’s not just video games. It’s our American culture. From John Wayne to Stand Your Ground Laws…From glossy movie violence to wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Viet Nam…We shoot first and ask questions later. The tough guy is always the cool guy. We do no propaganda for peace…No “Conversation Peace” (to quote Stevie Wonder.) Hollywood bears responsibility, schools bear responsibility, parents bear responsibility, and most of all political leaders bear responsibility. But it is not culture alone!
When are we going to talk about gun control? When are we going to make laws and change policies so that these people do not have easy access to automatic weapons and all of the latest war accessories? The Colorado killer (24-year-old James Holmes) had state-of-the-art body armor, automatic weapons, several types of guns, a massive cache of ammunition, tear gas & explosives, all purchased within the last few months. And it was all legal! Where is the alarm system? Where is the national weapons registry? And why are these automatic weapons, with the capability for easy, mass murder, legal at all in our nation?
Gun enthusiasts like to say “guns don’t kill people, people do.” But the truth is, that’s not how we run our country on any other issue. We have laws & policies designed to keep pedophiles away from children. We don’t say “pedophiles are only dangerous when they are performing illegal acts. ” We limit where they can live, we put them on national sex offenders registries.We don’t say “drugs don’t kill people, people do.” We have laws: some drugs are illegal, some reasonably regulated by doctors and pharmacists.
But the far right and organizations like the NRA (National Rifle Association) have made gun control more scary than guns to most politicians and leadership. The only way we can change this is to turn up the volume. We, the people are going to have to force our leaders left & right to take on these lobbyists of death and make our nation safer. Yes, we should work on changing our glamorization of violence, our culture of destruction…We should work on our collective mental wellness…Yes, we should strive for more mental health resources for troubled individuals…These things take time. Gun control doesn’t have to. Not if we remember that the power of our votes & voices is stronger than the enormous amounts of cash the gun lobbies wield. The ballot is still stronger than the bullet, pen still mightier than the sword. Let’s make it happen!
August 5, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Dominique, I agree with most of what you are saying here. But there is a part of me that says: not more “gun control” but more communication between people with the responsiblilties to report those who are a danger to themselves or to others. As I hear it, this young man was reaching out for help for quite a while and even told his shrink enough to warrant her alerting authorities…what did authorities known? What did they do? I don’t know. But what I do know is that if one of the brave survivors, or unarmed military personnel would have been packing a legally purchased 9mm and put one to the rear of the shooter’s head after his first shots rang out, lives would have been saved. People with sinister motives will get guns, because if they we law abiding they would shoot up theatres inthe first place.
George Bush used 9/11 to scare us into believing that we needed the Patriot Act. Now the goovernment can “sneak and peak” into our lives wouthout warning and without letting us know they have been there…right down to the library books we check out. Instead os such drastic measures he could have simply read the memo piled on his on Connie’s desk about the chatter of the attack and the female Minneapolis agent they ignored who warned of the attack. I’m not for more laws, just better implementation and communication.