{"id":798277,"date":"2019-08-06T09:42:32","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T15:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=369562"},"modified":"2019-08-06T09:42:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T15:42:32","slug":"opinion-mike-littwin-american-carnage-american-madness-american-denial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/opinion-mike-littwin-american-carnage-american-madness-american-denial\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Mike Littwin: American carnage. American madness. American denial."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Mike Littwin<\/strong>
The Colorado Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Here we are again. Two mass shootings over a weekend. Three in a week. And yet we seem paralyzed as ever about what to do about it, beginning with the president himself who, of course, would never acknowledge his own role \u2014 or the role of guns \u2014 in the madness. Instead, Donald Trump has this to say: \u201cMental illness and hatred pulled the trigger \u2014 not the gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet we begin anew, because we must, despite the paralysis, despite the National Rifle Association, despite those who would blame everything but guns for gun violence and despite those who would deny that Trump\u2019s race-baiting rhetoric plays any role in the rapid rise of dangerous white nationalism.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll start with the notion that anyone who cites video games as a cause for America\u2019s contagion of mass shootings should be voted out of office. We can remember that from Columbine days. One Twitter correspondent said he expected someone to blame Marilyn Manson next.<\/p>\n

In brief, there are violent video games throughout the world. There is no shortage of hatred thoughout the world. There is mental illness throughout the world. There is a rise in white nationalism and anti-immigrant feeling in Europe as well as America. Only in America, though, do we face (and not face up to) the constant barrage of mass shootings and gun violence.<\/p>\n

And so, we pretend to look for other causes. Anyone who says \u2014 as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did \u2014 that the problem is lack of prayer in schools should be voted out of office. <\/p>\n

Anyone who blames mental illness and doesn\u2019t tie that to the easy availability of guns to the mentally ill \u2014 or to those displaying severe anti-social behavior \u2014 should be voted out of office.<\/p>\n

Anyone who can look at the 24 seconds it took the Dayton shooter to kill nine people and injure dozens more and doesn\u2019t move to ban such high-powered rifles and limit terrifyingly large magazines should be voted out of office.<\/p>\n

Anyone who says more guns make us safer \u2014 when the evidence clearly says that\u2019s not true \u2014 should be voted out of office.<\/p>\n

Anyone who cites white nationalist terrorism and doesn\u2019t recognize Trump\u2019s role \u2014 in calling refugees \u201cinvaders,\u201d in demonizing \u201cillegal aliens,\u201d in suggesting four congresswomen of color \u2014 all American citizens and three born here \u2014 go back to where they came from, in calling a majority black American city \u201crat infested\u201d and questioning how anyone could live there, in normalizing white supremacy with his Charlottesville declaration of very fine people on both sides, in making a joke at a recent rally when a supporter says the solution to illegal immigration is to \u201cshoot \u2018em\u201d \u2014 should be voted out of office. <\/p>\n

Trump did mention \u201cwhite nationalism\u201d in his speech. Once. Earlier in the day, he tweeted that the press and fake news were to blame. He also mentioned the sewer that is the internet. He didn\u2019t mention his embrace of some of the nation\u2019s leading internet polluters.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read the polls. Americans overwhelmingly favor some form of government action on gun violence. According to the Gun Violence Archive<\/a>, the shootings in El Paso and Dayton brought the total of mass shootings (four or more injured) to 251 this year. According to the archive, there have four been more mass shootings since. And yet nothing gets done. <\/p>\n

For many of us who care about significantly reducing gun violence, Sandy Hook was a defining moment. Twenty first-graders are killed and nothing happens. Nothing. It seemed to shut the door forever on any hope for progress when a country isn\u2019t sufficiently moved by the death of all those 6-year-olds. Then came Parkland and its students \u2014 the victims of gun trauma \u2014 demanding something be done. And, as a result, even in Florida there was small, but not insignificant, movement.<\/p>\n

As Michael Luo writes in The New Yorker, it is time for Democrats to go big on guns.<\/a> Some ideas: Buy-back campaigns for assault-style weapons and banning them from here on. (America has twice as many guns per capita \u2014 more than one per person \u2014 than any other country. Yemen is second.) Reducing magazine size. Making guns theft-proof, so that the gun works only for the owner. Raising the age of purchase for long guns. Make gun licensing at least as difficult as getting a license to drive. Improve background checks. A federal red-flag law and severe civil penalties for those law enforcement officers who refuse to enforce the law.<\/p>\n

But if there\u2019s any hope \u2014 and it grows harder with each new act of gun violence to think so \u2014 we\u2019ll see it in the presidential campaign. Democrats will be forced to take on gun violence in a more serious way. The NRA is at its weakest point in memory. Someone suggested that the Democratic candidates issue a joint declaration on what must be done. That\u2019s unlikely, but no Democratic candidate without a serious plan to reduce gun violence should even be considered for the job. I\u2019ve been glad to see John Hickenlooper make it a centerpiece of his campaign, even if he once had to be pushed to support the 2013 gun laws that were passed, at great political cost, in Colorado. Was the utter failure of the attempt to recall Rep. Tom Sullivan, whose son Alex was killed in the Aurora theatre massacre, a sign of progress?<\/p>\n

Those who see \u2014 or hope to see \u2014 a corner being turned like to cite the sudden, and stunning, change in attitude on LGBTQ issues. It\u2019s not exactly the same thing. There\u2019s no 2nd Amendment explicitly addressing same-sex marriage. But in other ways, it is much the same. The question of gun violence, as tied to gun rights, needs a cultural change as much, or maybe more, than any legal change.<\/p>\n

As of now, we live in a culture that seems to insist that El Paso and Dayton and Gilroy are the price that must be paid for living in America. That can\u2019t be what most Americans believe. And yet, if something isn\u2019t done, we\u2019ll be back here again. And again. And again. Teddy bears and flowers. Shock and tears. Nothing changing except the names of the killers and the names of their victims.<\/p>\n

Mike Littwin writes the biweekly column \u201cFair and Unbalanced\u201d for The Colorado Independent. He previously worked at The Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun. Contact him at<\/em> mike@coloradoindependent.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike LittwinThe Colorado Independent Here we are again. Two mass shootings over a weekend. Three in a week. And yet we seem paralyzed as ever about what to do about it, beginning with the president himself who, of course, would never acknowledge his own role \u2014 or the role of guns \u2014 in the madness. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-798277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 19:18:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}