When I was 11 years old, the President of the United States was assassinated. When I was 16, Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King fell to an assassin's bullet, and within months, the dead President's brother was also cut down. You might say that I became inured to gun violence well before adulthood. But I was not alone.
In the mid-70's, when I was in my mid-20's, President Ford survived two assassination attempts. In 1980, former Beatle John Lennon was gunned down outside his apartment building in New York. In 1981, President Reagan was wounded, as was presidential press secretary James Brady , a D.C. police officer, and a Secret Service officer. Such a high profile shooting briefly changed the gun narrative in America, and serious discussion concerning some kind of limits of guns seemed possible. Except that it didn't.
Recognizing a shift in public sentiment, the the National Council to Control Handguns morphed into the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV) in 1983. It was founded as an education outreach organization with the mission to reduce gun violence, with President Reagan's former press secretary and wife as its "First Family". His terrible wounds, and subsequent disability make Mr. Brady a powerful symbol for restraint, even as the Gun Lobby demonizes anyone who supports him. They had some success, but as the 1999 Columbine horror demonstrated, their legislative successes were replete with loopholes. This has a paralyzing effect on American politics.
The Gun Lobby, the darlings of K Street, and their enablers within the GOP and the conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats, control the issue. The sight of presidential candidate John Kerry in full hunting clothes during the late stages of the 2004 campaign testifies powerfully to how one must kowtow to the forces of 2nd Amendment extremism. And it isn't just Democrtic candidates that must worship at the gun extremist altar. GOP candidate Mitt Romney felt it necessary to lie about his life-long NRA membership during the 2008 primaries.
The Gun Lobby gets what it wants. In 2008, Texas decided to permit teachers the right to carry guns in school. Last year, the gun reform they won was our right to carry weapons in National Parks. It seems that the only reform possible is the expansion of gun owner rights. But do we feel any safer?
I was in Arizona the day of the Tuscon shootings, although many miles away in the Sedona area. It is a beautiful state, to be sure, but with a political culture very foreign to this writer. During my travels I noticed two people wearing handguns strapped to their thighs, and I'm not sure if they were cowboy re-enactors or just colorful local figures. It got me to thinking about the famed urban-rural split: while most Americans live in city or suburb, much of our identity is forged in our rural past. Despite the fact that most Americans have lived in non-rural settings since 1900, the mythology remains. And it is that mythology that the gun lobby successfully exploits. In the wake of the recent elections, the NRA proudly chortled "Election Day 2010 was a great day for the Second Amendment and NRA members, and positions us well for our future defense, and advancement, of the Second Amendment! The most important fact about Tuesday's elections for gun owners is how many more pro-gun lawmakers we will have in the next legislative session and how many fewer anti-gun lawmakers there will be." Most Americans do not belong to the NRA, but it controls the debate. It controls Congress. It controls the Supreme Court. And the beat goes on.........
