DON'T SHUT UP

The NRA wants to distract you from what happened in Uvalde; don't let it happen

I’m continuing the conversation about Uvalde as an act of resistance.

We all know the terrible emotional undertow by which Americans, having become so inured to disaster, simply start moving on after a few days. The next big thing begins to take over, and specific memories of horror fade. I don’t think it’s that people don’t care; it’s that so many feel hopeless that anything is going to change, they don’t know what else to do, and they think there’s just no option but going forward in life and simply hoping for the best.

We must not allow ourselves to go to that place, and this time I think we have a moment of opportunity. Millions of people have awakened to some truths that while deeply unpleasant, spur us to action if we allow them to. That unpleasant truth is how many powerful forces in our society really don’t care who lives or dies as long as their profits continue to soar. That immoral perspective belongs to many corporate interests in this country - gun manufacturers are just one of them - but a complete lack of ethics on their part is now a direct threat to our children. And we must stop them.

The vast majority of Americans want common sense gun safety laws, but we’re living at a time when Lincoln’s notion of government “of the people, by the people and for the people” feels more like a taunt than a political reality. Today we’re a government “of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.” When it comes to gun policy, it’s “of the NRA, by the NRA and for the NRA.” It is truly sickening.

There is a bill in Congress that all of us should know about. It is HR8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021. The bill was originally introduced in 2019 by Democratic Representative Mike Thompson of California's 5th district and passed with some bipartisan support. The bill would expand background checks to be required on all firearm sales, closing the gun show and online sales loopholes. It would require background checks on firearms sales or transfers throughout the U.S. Background checks are not currently required for sales or transfers by unlicensed and private sellers.

90 per cent of the American people are on record for wanting expanded background checks, yet Washington does not now reflect the will of the people. The panic and upset about Uvalde seems to not have penetrated the walls of the Capitol. While HR8 passed the House in 2019, Republican Senators are blocking it in the Senate. When the leadership of one party is soulless and the other is spineless, there seems to be little that we can do.

And even that bill does not go far enough. As I discuss in the video above, we need a ban on AR-15 and AK-47 assault weapons. These guns are meant for one thing only, and that is to massacre people. When we had an assault weapons ban from 1994-2004, mass shootings went down 43%. After it expired, mass shootings tripled.

The NRA-inspired propaganda of the week is to distract us, arguing that the the mental health issue on the part of the shooter is the only real culprit. But I get a sense that isn’t working quite the same way now. People more willing to protect their right to own an assault weapon than they’re willing to protect the life of a child are holding less and less sway over the American mind. America’s gun fetish is itself a mental health issue.

At this point, it’s up to you and me. There will be protests for gun reform in various cities on June 11, but it’s direct lobbying of our Senators remains most needed now. That is where the greatest pressure lies, and we need to make it happen.

Again, the Capitol switchboard is 202 224 3121. For the love of our children, let’s not shut up.