How many more times? It's not gun control - it's guns totally out of control!

Pictured above is a sombre President Obama, speaking at a Newtown, Connecticut high school following the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook elementary school where 20 children and 6 adult educators were slaughtered. 

Let me be very clear from the get-go: although it somehow helps to ease the pain a little that a sitting President comes to share his "grief" (in quotation marks because it cannot possibly be compared to that of the parents/family of those shot), it is most certainly politicians and all their back room dealing and two-faced attitudes to issues such as gun control that have allowed the escalation of mass shootings in the USA and even more recently in Canada. 

They stand out at podiums bleating on about how tragic this massacre was, or that one, while an entire Congress has been running scared of the NRA and the power they wield, for years. Every time that gun control comes up during a general election, it is side-stepped by politicians because of the potential to lose their jobs if the NRA turns against them. Congressmen and women are extremely reticent to put party needs above their individual states, and the second amendment right to bear arms is so entrenched in society that to some it is untouchable.

Put quite simply, until the politics and careerism is taken out of gun control, nothing is going to change. Obama can put on a long face all he wants, as can all of the other usual faces and players, but saying "we need to do something" or "we need to change" is about as meaningful to me as his "hope and change" rhetoric was during 2008-2012. It's like ice cream for tonsilitis - it feels good, but doesn't achieve anything until the tonsils are cut out. He is not running for a third term, so he can afford to become unpopular (his nightmare) while rallying the troops (no pun intended) and actually trying to really get something done about this fiasco. 

The NRA has forcefully put down any attempt to change gun control laws, and the politicians who want (re)elected bend over for them, every time. Is there one politician in the land who is going to put the lives of the next 20 children at risk above his/her own job, and take on the NRA in Congress? Even if it cost them their seat in the next election? The bottom line is that they are all in it together, and are primarily always concerned with their power and their career and their life, first, and some more children being massacred beside their school desks, second. Until someone puts children's (or any victim's) lives first, nothing will change.

You always hear the arguments as to why it is impossible to do anything - and the arguments can be strong. There are an estimated 300 million guns already circulating in the USA: this is an absolutely terrifying statistic. A gun for everyone in the land! I read a recent comment stating that the great majority of owners are male, and that this is part of the problem, but ironically, the three guns used by the psycho in Sandy Nook school belonged to his mother. Who he also shot, by the way. It doesn't matter who owns them, it matters that they are present and accessible in the home!

One of the major arguments is always some bleating about how Americans have the constitutional right to protect themselves in their homes. What I would like to know is what are the statistics of shootings that occur in homes, via a father/mother protecting their children from an invader, versus how many unlawful shootings occur on the streets or in public places. I am pretty certain the latter hugely outnumbers the former, underlining the fact that guns create problems, they don't solve them.

Where there is a will, there is most definitely a way. Look at Australia. They decided to do something about their problems with guns, whereby PM John Howard took on the gun lobbies in 1996, and instigated legislation and a buy-back of some 640,000 guns (about one fifth, I believe) in a countrywide disarmament move. And? There have been no shooting massacres since. Additionally, firearm-mediated homicide and suicides both were reduced by around 60%. These are staggeringly positive results, and America needs to examine what was done there - if they have the you-know-what to take on the NRA and gun lobbyists. 

Canada does not have the same level of problem as the USA but it has seen an escalation in gun-related murders and mass shootings in recent years, and the total fiasco that was the gun registry did nothing positive - it actually increased the feeling that there was nothing to worry about, especially if you already owned guns prior to the fiasco. There will be a price to pay one day down the road, and everyone knows it, but again, politics and personal positions come before worrying about some school children that might be shot at some point in the future. It's shameful. 

Politicians needs to be made accountable. By whom? By us, that's who! People need to make it clear that they are no longer going to vote for the more experienced politician who might also happen to be under the wing of the NRA, but rather, instead, they are prepared to take a risk on some new 30-year-old, simply because he will fight for gun control from day one in office. In the end it is not the NRA who guarantees their jobs, it is the electorate. If the electorate spoke firmly enough, people might worry about the NRA a little less.

But of course, one cannot invoke the electorate without simultaneously saying that we are also therefore part of the problem, by helping to elect politicians (Obama included) who either pretend to be for gun control in public, or who are for it but refuse to step up when they get the job because of unpopularity in the party. Gun control is continuously neglected and the only question of relevance is how many more massacres is it going to take until there is a paradigm shift in attitudes towards it? 

One cannot help but wonder what the difference would be, if any, after a high level politician lost a child at the hands of some murderer at an elementary school? Would it suddenly garner greater attention or would they find themselves sort of sidelined in their new efforts for change, once a month had passed? Going from collective sympathy to suddenly being a pariah, because they are always hammering on about gun control now, just because they happened to lose someone. I am sure Congress can be a very lonely place when you don't toe the party line, but that is what is going to be needed to effect change - some people are going to have to grow the courage to stand up and refuse to take it anymore. 

It's a rather bleak topic for a lovely, snowy Monday morning but you know, unless we talk about it and make our opinions heard, and keep making them heard, well, nothing is ever going to change. Politicians need to realize that we are no longer going to give them a pass and elect them, unless they fully back gun control reform, and do something about it in office, and institutions such as the NRA need to have their power base and wings clipped, or held in check. Congress needs to stop running scared of the NRA and grow a pair. If the electorate and politicians can share a vision and work together (what a strange sounding concept!) then change will always be possible. 

That's my take on the subject, and I am sure we will read and hear many more opinions in the coming days. But let's keep the day positive, and on that note, I think it's time for a large mug of dark roast and a smoked salmon-poached egg bagel. Even my cat's ears will perk up from bed when he hears the wrapper to the salmon opening, and he will race down for his part of the treat. Not bad for a Monday morning, he will no doubt purr! ;) - Kevin Mc

[Update: No shocker at all that speaking on behalf of the President and the White House, Jay Carney today asked people to tamper expectations on gun law reform, "reminding" everyone that it is a complex problem which will need serious contemplation and discussion. "There are obstacles to action coming from a variety of places." Uh huh. As if that is something that we were not acutely aware of many years ago, already. There has been more than enough time for even the Obama administration to address this issue with action, not more words of rhetoric. The usual excuses, the usual calls for patience, the usual appeals for calm, and all the while nothing seems to change, ever. How completely predictable.]