This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 14, 2012 - WASHINGTON – Televised images showing stunned kindergartners being led from a school where their classmates lie dead. The president – choked up, wiping away tears – telling the nation that “our hearts are broken.” Sympathetic lawmakers declaring that they are sickened by the latest American massacre.
Friday’s horrific scenes and reports hit especially hard because the victims reportedly included 20 children between the ages of 5 and 10, innocent kids gunned during during a shooter’s cold-blooded rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the normally quiet town of Newtown, Conn.
But aspects of the latest massacre seemed to fit into a nightmarish pattern, a scenario that has shocked Americans again and again. A mentally disturbed young man gains access to an arsenal of guns, walks into a public place and proceeds to shoot multiple people. Perhaps he has a twisted reason for lashing out but most, if not all, of the victims are blameless bystanders.
“As a country, we have been through this too many times,” an emotional President Barack Obama said Friday. “Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago -- these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children.”
Obama clearly feels for the victims and their families, and he has given uplifting talks at sites of mass killings. We remember his moving address after the shooting in Tucson nearly two years ago that killed six, injured a dozen others and ended the House career of U.S. Rep. Gabriel Giffords. He met with survivors after last summer’s Aurora, Colo., massacre in which a lone gunman opened fire in a movie theater, killing a dozen people and wounding 58 others.
But after the eloquent speeches and the obligatory “my heart goes out” statements by scores of lawmakers – as well as occasional calls for tighter laws to control access to semiautomatic weapons and oversized ammunition magazines – nothing gets done.
If the shootings occur within a year or two of a presidential election, the White House talks the talk – but seldom tries to walk the walk – on gun control. Swamped with special-interest contributions and high-powered lobbying from constituents as well as from the National Rifle Association and other “gun rights” groups, Congress fails to take action.
And the nation eventually moves on to other issues. Until the next Newtown, Aurora, Tucson, Virginia Tech or Columbine. Those are the massacres we remember – especially the shootings in schools.
But there are hundreds of other multiple shootings, most of which few of us have ever read about -- including the Oct. 21 gun violence in Chicago that left five dead, and a gunman’s shooting of three women on the same day in Brookfield, Wisc. Many are listed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, named after White House press secretary Jim Brady, who was badly wounded in the 1982 shooting attack on President Ronald Reagan.
Will Friday’s mass murder of children at a Connecticut school end up following the past pattern and result in zero action? There were early signs that the atrocity might at least shock some officials into trying to do something.
“As a country, we don’t need more debate, no more excuses. The time for action is now,” said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, in a statement after Friday’s shootings.
“Too many times this year, mayors have expressed shock at a mass shooting. The conference has been calling for sensible gun laws to protect the public for more than 40 years. We hope that today’s monstrous act of gun violence finally forces this nation’s leaders to make reasonable changes in our gun laws and regulations.”
In his emotional statement Friday, Obama said, “We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.” The president cancelled a scheduled appearance Saturday in Maine, and some administration officials that he might at least propose steps that aim to avert such massacres in the future.
David Chipman, who spent 25 years as a special agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, told the New York Times that the shooting may prove to be “a game changer.”
“The only thing that I personally experienced that was similar to this moment was the Oklahoma City bombing, where another American killed scores of people,” said Chipman, now a consultant to Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Capitol Hill is a dead end for gun control efforts
Even though public outrage was white-hot on Friday, few political experts believe that Congress is likely to take significant action in response to the Newtown tragedy.
The NRA, which did not offer an official comment immediately after Friday’s shootings, has argued over the years against significant gun control, arguing that the Second Amendment (which guarantees the rights of Americans to bear arms) bars such laws. Typically, NRA officials contend that it is disturbed people, rather than the availability of weapons, that threaten public safety.
There is, of course, some truth to that. But why is it that mentally imbalanced people in America can so easily obtain an arsenal of weapons, including assault rifles and 100-round ammunition magazines?
Why is it that there were more than 12,000 gun-related deaths in this country in 2008, while there were only 11 such deaths in Japan, a nation of 128 million people? Could it have something to do with the fact that the United States has the loosest gun laws in the developed world, and Japan has the strictest?
Can’t Congress at least try to limit access to assault rifles and oversized magazines? Well, there were plenty of bills introduced in the nearly ended 112th Congress. But no major gun-control measure has even made it out of a committee. Read the summary here.
On Friday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, ordered U.S. Capitol flags lowered to half staff to honor the Newtown victims. “The horror of this day seems so unbearable, but we will lock arms and unite as citizens, for that is how Americans rise above unspeakable evil,” Boehner said in a statement.
But is Boehner likely to rise up and lead the charge for gun-control legislation in the new Congress that begins on Jan. 3? Consider this: During the 2011-12 campaign cycle, Boehner’s campaign accepted more contributions from the NRA and other “gun rights” groups -- $48,575 – than any other member of Congress, according to Open Secrets.
Between 2001 and 2010, the NRA spent between $1.5 million and $2.7 million on federal-level lobbying efforts, according to an analysis by OpenSecrets.org. The NRA not only supports individual candidates through its Political Victory Fund but also spends millions on issue ads and other “off-the-books spending.” In the 2010 election cycle the NRA spent more than $7.2 million on independent expenditures at the federal level.
In contrast, the organizations that back gun control, including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, have comparatively little political clout. According to OpenSecrets, the Brady Campaign’s political action committee spent only $10,800 in contributions in the 2010 election cycle, and only $40,000 for its lobbying efforts over those two years.
After the Aurora shootings, the only local and regional political leaders who were outspoken in advocating a ban on assault weapons were U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis. Most local leaders were silent.
That included U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who was in the midst of a re-election campaign in a state where the gun lobby is traditionally strong. On Friday, McCaskill reacted strongly to the Connecticut shootings.
“I’m stunned and sick to my stomach. And as a mother, I’m horrified,” she said. “All of America is grieving for these children and their families. As we learn more, my prayers are with the students and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary, and with their families.”
But will McCaskill support legislation that aims to prevent such tragedies in the future? What about U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who has opposed gun-control bills in the past? He said Friday that he was “shocked by this incredible tragedy, and I hope all Americans will join me in praying for the victims and their families after this horrific and senseless act of violence.”
At least some Americans were taking steps on Friday to try to accomplish something. Gun-control supporters gathered outside of the White House in a vigil. And others were signing a petition, posted Friday on the White House website, that demanded action.
The petition’s goal, it said, “is to force the Obama administration to produce legislation that limits access to guns. While a national dialogue is critical, laws are the only means in which we can reduce the number of people murdered in gun-related deaths.”