Lorne Green sings a song called “I’m a Gun.” A song that is sung from the gun’s point of view of being manufactured to kill, how the killer was not the gun, the holder of the gun, and the remorse the gun feels for the user’s mistakes, but how the firearm cannot change the user’s desires. Consider this truth for a moment, Chicago is about to become a deadly land again, with the weekend shooting totals that far exceed anything seen on a modern battlefield. Happening every weekend until the weather changes to cold again and the shooters go inside to lick their wounds.
But the corporate media will blame the gun for the violence.
I read a recent news article complaining that COVID must soon be over because America is back to shooting each other. Except in an odd twist of fate, several stabbing attacks also happened; however, nobody ever blames the knife for knife violence. Yet, the gun is always to blame for gun violence. Use a hammer, a baseball bat, a machete, etc., and those weapons are never blamed for the violence perpetrated. Use a gun, and get an automatic pass on responsibility, for the gun jumped off the table, forced you to pack it to the site of the crime, twisted your arm to get into your hand, and the gun was the problem for the violence.
At least, this logic is what every defense lawyer and politician in America believes.
The media define mass shootings as at least four people being shot in the same incident, time, and location. Really, but war is never considered a “mass shooting.” So, there must be something else that separates gun violence and war violence. Please note, there is not a broadly defined and accepted definition for a mass shooting. Hence, each newspaper can calculate the statistics; differently, each politician can calculate the numbers to fit a political agenda. Every defense lawyer has a ready-made claim for a courtroom to reduce the severity of the shooter’s actions.
But never forget, the gun is at fault when used in the act of violence against another person.
Law officers, military, and other first responders are a different category in statistics on mass shootings. For example, the 2009 Fort Hood shooting cannot be a terrorist incident or premeditated murder; it can only be classified as “workplace violence.” Pres. Obama set the pattern which has continued. 2016, two airmen are shot in a workplace incident at Lackland Air Force Base. Does the craven and cowardly with their megaphones make you sick yet? Gun violence leaves victims, but the victims cannot be “real” victims because they are in a different category if they are first responders or military. I disagree most vociferously!
Hey, do not blame the shooter; it’s the gun’s fault!
Regarding classifications of mass shootings, family incidents do not qualify as mass shootings. Neither do indiscriminate gun rampages where an armed person drives through a city, leaving victims in separate locations and at different times. Domestic violence, even when perpetrated with a gun, is not a mass shooting, even if the body count and sites are sufficient under other circumstances to be considered a mass shooting. Broaden the criteria to define a mass shooting, and the media and lawyers will through a conniption fit because they lose the ability to control the narrative. Lose the narrative and lose public sympathy for the unfortunate minority user of a gun in committing violence.
All because a gun is different, and the gun can force the shooter to become a victim.
On another interesting aspect where gun violence is concerned, the sex/gender, age, and other demographic data select who the victims are and where the problems lay in mass shootings. A white male will be vilified in the news for using a gun to commit a crime and cannot be a victim of the weapon being violent. Whereas Latinos and Blacks can get a pass for being victims of guns being violent and causing mass shootings; because, as we all know, the gun is the violent perpetrator when used by minorities.
If you are WASP, do not own a gun, as this is automatically a bad thing according to the media.
Speaking of WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant), mental illnesses have grown in conjunction with the mass shootings advertised by the media. Several research reports have conclusively reflected a relationship between psychotropic drugs given to children and children using guns to effect violence at school. Yet, when was the last time you saw a K-12 teacher who had a doctorate in chemistry and pharmacology before your kids were ordered to be on a mind-altering drug?
But do not blame the teachers peddling drugs to kids committing gun violence; it’s the gun’s fault!
There are many terms for another category of gun violence deserving discussion, copycat phenomenon, media contagion, and so many more. Hence, a good defense lawyer can use media contagion to reason their client went homicidal after a gun attacked them and forced the shooter to use the tool in the act of violence. With websites and social media, corporate media, and the politicians needing a talking point, the notoriety of a mass shooting has escalated since the Easter Sunday Massacre (1975) in Hamilton, Ohio. This is a valid excuse for shooting; I don’t think so!
The darn gun, jumping into vulnerable hands, and making killers is just too much!
Personal accountability is the pre-eminent staple in the criminal justice system. The defense uses every trick they can play to avoid negative consequences for their client, and the prosecutor is expected to hold that person accountable. Except, where gun violence is concerned, the prosecutor and the defender are in the same boat, blaming the gun for the violent acts committed by minorities. But WASPs get none of the soft-shoe handlings after a mass shooting. Think I am wrong; look at the demographic data and the sentencing of gun violence committers in New York, Detroit, and Chicago. Then we can talk about the disparity in treatment and sentencing in the criminal justice system. Let’s ask the couple in Missouri if they feel their case was handled correctly when the media crucified them for defending their home with a gun.
America believes in one law for all! A “Liberty FIRST Culture” understands why the “Rule of Law” remains the sounding cry of freedom and liberty. But do not be fooled; the gun is never at fault for gun violence. The number of bullets in a gun/magazine is not the reason people died in gun violence. The type of round, the powder load, full/half/no metal jacket does not deserve the blame for injuries committed. Stop playing stupid games with the law and with guns. Violence is violence, and the offender deserves their day in court and a short drop with a sudden stop! The media and politicians need to either understand or leave public office, for blaming guns for people caused violence is an elective mental disease at best!
© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
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