I’ve been pretty silent on this blog of late; I think I was trying to keep this as a ‘one issue’ sort of space, and talking about being single and kidless when circumstances aren’t actually changing all that much is kind of sad and kind of boring, for you and for me.
But fuck that. Who cares if this is a one issue blog? It’s my blog! So here we go:
This week, something absolutely horrifying happened, and I want to talk about it. This week, a man in Orlando, armed with an assault rifle and a pistol (but mostly the assault rifle) was able to kill 49 people and injure over 50 more in the deadliest mass shooting yet in America.
I want to make something clear: I care why. I do. I think that the ‘why’ of this is very, very, fundamentally important. I think that the conversation around whether this was a hate crime (spoiler alert: it was a hate crime) is very important. I think pulling apart the complexity of the ‘why’ of this event is key for the victims and their families and the LGBTQ community and the whole of the nation to get closure.
But honestly? It’s the ‘how’ of this event that has me fucking angry. And what’s compounding it is that none of the straw man ‘radical Islamic terrorist’ arguments that are being bandied about on my television address the real issue. The real issue is this: a man, born in New York, a U.S. citizen with an employment background in security, who was NOT on any terror watchlist, was able to buy an assault weapon and ammunition with the intent to murder as many LGBTQ people as he could.
[A side note back to the ‘why’ for a moment:
Friends, I need to you to ignore the red herring being waved at you on your televisions. He was not on a watchlist, because the FBI, after a 15 month investigation, had no reason to think he was directly connected to terror groups. They had no reason to think that because, as far as we are aware, he was NOT connected to any terror groups. He was a lone wolf gunman. He may have pledged his allegiance to ISIL before he did this, but he was not supported by ISIL, nor was he backed by ISIL.
The news wants to draw parallels between what happened in a gay nightclub in Orlando and what happened in San Bernadino. I think a much, much closer comparison would be between what happened in a gay nightclub in Orlando and what happened in a black church in Charleston. In both cases, you have a man who is clearly full of anger, whose anger is directed at a group of people whom he considers to be less-than himself, who he sees as a threat to his way of life, who he sees holding power and influence they ‘shouldn’t’ have, maybe more than he has himself. You have that man find places - online, in his community, on conservative news channels - where others not only agree with him, but also support him, fuel his hatred, give his bigotry weight and importance. You have that man then take it upon himself solve the problem, to go to where these people are, to walk among them, to hear them and see them and still not believe that they are human beings worthy of love, because the hate in him is so strong, so huge. Because it’s so much a part of who he is that he can’t stop thinking about it, he can’t stop obsessing about it. And you have that man take a weapon that he legally obtained, a weapon of WAR, and bring it into a peaceful place, with the intent to kill those he finds abhorrent.]
So yes, I think ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ is a red herring. And it will distract us from the truth.
The truth is that an American citizen with no criminal history (let’s face the fact that we have such a terrible track record in this country of helping women who are in domestic abuse situations that his ex-wife’s family came and physically removed her from his home without bothering to try to involve the police), who was no longer under surveillance by the FBI (after he fully complied with their investigation), and who went through a (short, but mandatory) waiting period to pick up his weapons (even though he could have picked up his rifle the same day! Florida, you are on drugs.) then murdered 49 people with those weapons.
It seems like very little could have been done to prevent this tragedy.
The issue now is, what can we do to stop the next one.
My first reaction to news of the shooting, after the shock and grief, was this: Congress is complicit in the deaths of these 49 Americans. And most of that is due to the sacred cow that is the Second Amendment, and the fear lawmakers have of touching anything that comes close to challenging it.
So you know what I have to say to the gun lobby? FUCK THE SECOND AMENDMENT.
Say it with me. Come on, I know you want to! I know we hold the Constitution up to a standard even our grandmothers can’t live up to, but that Second Amendment is a millstone around our necks, and supporting it is KILLING AMERICANS EVERY DAY. Thousands upon thousands of us, every year. So FUCK the Second Amendment. We don’t need it. Repeal it. Abolish it. And then abolish all the guns.
Yes, all of them. We don’t need them. You don’t need them. You don’t need to hunt for your food, or for sport. (Buy your meat from the supermarket. Take up fishing.) You don’t need them for protection from burglars. (Chances are your kid would die from an accidental shooting before your house is ever burgled.) Let’s go and do what the NRA has been fear-mongering about for decades - let’s pass laws outlawing all guns, and then let’s go and TAKE EVERYONE’S GUNS AWAY. Let’s dismantle them, let’s melt them down. Let’s never have a gun show again. Let’s make the manufacture of them illegal. Let’s make even having one in your home a felony. Maybe we can keep gun ranges open, where all weapons are checked in and out for the day, and never leave the premises. Maybe the antique ones passed down from our ancestors who fought in the Civil War can be kept in locked cases, as heirlooms. Our military can keep a few. But why not try living in a world where average Jane’s and Joe’s can’t own guns. At all. Not a one.
Does that sound crazy? Maybe! Does that sound crazier than the rhetoric of the NRA? Not really!
The gun lobby has been worried for decades that the Left would come and take their guns. I’ve been worried for just as long that we WON’T. Why is my fear about guns trumped by their fear about being tread upon? I’m a grownup with a voice and a vote! Why shouldn’t I yell what I believe at the top of my lungs, just as loudly as they do?
Here’s the crux of the gun control fight: I think we’ve been fighting it wrong. I think that those who believe in more (and more and more) gun control have been gently, quietly placating Second Amendment gun nuts for far too long. I think we’ve been tiptoeing into rooms saying things like “not all gun owners” and “closing loopholes” and “common sense laws." And it’s gotten us nowhere. It’s gotten us nothing. Nothing but nightclubs and movie theaters and office parties and elementary schools and churches full of bodies.
Here’s what I propose: let’s go hard to the left. Let’s threaten the FUCK out of the Second Amendment. Let’s come for their guns. Let’s keep coming, and coming, and coming for their guns until they’re as TERRIFIED of us as we are of them. Let’s be the left-wing Constitution-hating boogeyman they warn their children about. Let’s stand up and be loud and be counted and be AMERICANS with a VOICE.
And then, when they’re as scared as we are, let’s sit down and talk. Let’s say “you can keep handguns, but no more assault weapons.” Let’s say “law-abiding Americans can own guns, but once they’ve broken the law (especially in terms of domestic violence), you give up your right to any guns.” Let’s say “gun shows can stay, but let’s have a way to do on-site background checks.” Let’s say “gun violence is a problem, but we should figure out what a ‘responsible gun owner’ really looks like so we don’t accidentally take their guns - why don’t we fund some research into it by the CDC?”
You see, in order to come to a middle ground, you’ve got to have voices on both sides. The middle is where no one gets everything they want, so it’s not a popular place. But hey, that’s America. In order to have sane compromise, you have to have two equal sides fighting for opposing ideologies. And if the NRA is going to be extremist, then so can we. I’ve picked my side. I’ve picked American lives over the sacred cow of the Second Amendment.
Hopefully, sooner rather than later, we can all meet in the middle, as Americans.
(As I write this, Senate Democrats are… filibustering seems to be the wrong word, since they’re trying to get legislation onto the floor and not block it. But they’re committing themselves to speaking in support of gun regulation for as long as it takes to pull sensible, sane laws up for a vote. Well done, Democrats! You’ve been doormats on gun control for far too long! Maybe sanity will come sooner this time? Enough is certainly enough. I won’t be thrilled if we ‘only’ get an assault weapons ban through Congress, but hey - it’s a start!)
