Here Lies America: Shot to Death

[WilliamPitt]

Jimmy Greene holds a photo of his daughter, Ana Marquez-Greene, 6, one of the victims of the
shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as he comforts his wife, Nelba Marquez-Greene.
(Photo: Ozier Muhammad / The New York Times)

Here Lies America: Shot to Death
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Thursday 12 December 2013

There was snow that morning, so the hiss of flakes against the windows was a constant companion as I got her ready for the day. I watched her eat a bowl of cereal and drink a glass of orange juice, helped her shrug into her winter coat, made sure her laces were tied, and held her hand as we managed the icy walk to the car. She kissed my cheek before stepping out into the controlled mayhem of the sidewalk in front of the school. I watched her as she was swallowed by the mob of children flowing in the schoolhouse door. I think I saw her look back and smile.

I was barely home before the phone rang. Something happened, something happened, I don't know what, but something happened. Turn on the news, and it's a view from a helicopter above her school, armored cops with rifles raised ("Like the ants that fight," you randomly remember from a Thomas Harris novel) swarming through the front door, children streaming out of the side of the building, is that her? Is that her? Where is my daughter?

No, that's not her, none of the screaming, hysterical, traumatized children on CNN are my baby, my baby is still in the building, face down in an ocean of blood and tangled in a pile of other dead children. Someone shot my baby so many times she doesn't have a face. Her jawbone is gore on the classroom wall, and I have to bury her with a closed casket so no one at the funeral throws up at the sight of her.

Welcome to the nightmare. As a parent, that scenario is one of many I am forced to deal with in my mind now, thanks to the Sandy Hook massacre.

I consider myself enormously fortunate, however, to have to deal only with the fear of someone randomly massacring my daughter. The reality of that horror is a national phenomenon. By a conservative estimate, at least 194 children have been killed by guns in the year since Sandy Hook. There have been more toddlers killed by toddlers with guns than there have been American adults killed by terrorists in this fading calendar year. The average age of the children who were killed by guns since Sandy Hook is six years old.

The folks who build small coffins for a living are enjoying a boom time.

(snip)

It isn't NRA money, or right-wing pressure groups that bears all the responsibility for this. Neither would stand a chance against the kind of unified front represented by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Remember MADD? They changed the country, changed the culture, because too many kids were getting scraped off windshields and sent home to their parents in zippered sacks.

We don't have the kind of grassroots public advocacy against the epidemic of gun deaths that we had against drunk-driving deaths, even though it is children who do the dying all over again. There is nothing close to that kind of campaign happening anywhere.

We just don't care enough to make it stop, because it happens to other people, right?

That, right there, is why and where this country lost its way. The fact that we can't keep thousands of our citizens from dying by guns, and that even attempting to do so amounts to political suicide, is a shameful epitaph.

Here Lies America: shot to death. Please omit flowers.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20582-here-lies-america-shot-to-death

[WilliamPitt]

1. .

[ileus]

2. If MADD had spent their time getting cars banned

they probably would not have experienced much success.


Instead of cars with square tires, or top speed restrictions of 10 mph, or every car being a station wagon, they went after the real problem. The operators...

[Pretzel_Warrior]

3. MADD separated the drink from the driver of the car. We focus on separating the guns from

the crazies and the outlaws who shouldn't have the guns.

There are other groups focused on vehicle safety, posted speed limits, and the like.

In other words, you over simplify.

[Logical]

16. How do you plan to determine it? And many mass shooters were not criminals or mentally ill. nt

[Taitertots]

19. "Separated the drink from the driver"? MADD endorses prohibition?

I've never once heard of a MADD endorsed change that prevented people from being able to buy alcohol.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

41. Are you being obtuse intentionally?

Education, use of the designated driver, etc.

[KamaAina]

6. Cars are not designed to kill people

also, I got shut out of social life for most of my college years thanks to MADD, even though I did not drive.

[ileus]

7. Neither are firearms.

Self defense firearms are designed to save lives.

Hunting firearms are designed to harvest game.

Target firearms are designed for recreational shooting.

That covers the three segments of of the civilian market. Misuse is another topic completely.

[KamaAina]

8. What are AR-15s designed for?

[ileus]

9. All three.

My DWs AR is set up for punching paper. It doubles as a varmint shooter also with the nice scope she has on it.

My kids AR is set up for family plinking with a 22lr conversion bolt. They don't shoot the 5.56 bolt that much.

My AR I've set up for home defense and general plinking.

[kcr]

15. So, guns are hole punchers and family plinkers!

And, I suppose, if you ever do actually have to use that self defense gun, you'll tickle the intruder with it?

[ileus]

38. At that point and time

it becomes a potential life saving device.

That being said 95% of our collection are just hole punchers or hunting guns...

[lastlib]

27. Nancy Lanza's AR-15 plinked too many families last year.

Others are capable of plinking families on an industrial-strength scale. I don't give a rat's wazzoo about your hobbies when children are dying. It's going to stop. You can help, or get out of the way, or get run over.

[billh58]

33. The usual gun hugger suspects

are out in force on this thread, but their tired old bullshit is falling on more deaf ears than ever. Like the Republicans, they have taken an oath to obstruct any forward movement on the very real problem of gun violence in this nation. We don't need them, as they are a very distinct, but vocal, minority.

[LAGC]

68. It's never going to stop until we get serious about addressing mental health.

Take away the guns, the deranged will simply resort to using knives to slit kindergartners' throats like they do in China.

The problem is not the tool, we need to put the blame where it really lies.

[Bjorn Against]

74. The blame does not belong with a minority group

I hear gun advocates try to blame the mentally ill or other minority groups for the gun problem all the time, but the fact is not all gunners are mentally ill. Sure there are some prominent cases of mentally ill individuals shooting innocents, but the large majority of murderers do not have a mental illness.

Not all shootings involve mental illness but all shootings do involve guns.

[madinmaryland]

77. Another contendor for the DUzy of the year.

[Electric Monk]

82. re: that using guns vs using knives false equivalency

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024178751

[Packerowner740]

45. 22lr conversion bolt, 5.56 bolt?

[hatrack]

66. Why don't you trot along and fellate it now?

.

[ileus]

72. Good question...

[cry baby]

10. Guns are designed to kill. Period. That is what they are made for.

Some use them for punching holes in paper targets....others use them to shoot children.

[malaise]

13. That simple

Guns were made to kill.

[liberal N proud]

29. Exactly!

[etherealtruth]

65. To say that guns are designed for anything but killing is disingenuous at best

[cry baby]

70. Saying guns are designed for anything else but killing is just ass-covering in my view.

Thankfully, most find alternate uses for them but the rights for almost anyone to have them often tramples on others' right to live. The Newtown kids and teachers had a right to live. All the victims of gun violence had the right to live.

I don't know what to do about it. Sadly.

[madinmaryland]

79. Then WHAT THE FUCK are they designed for.

BTW, target practice is just practice for killing.

[Electric Monk]

87. You might want to re-read the post you're replying to. Your reply makes no sense. nt

[madinmaryland]

88. You might want to re-read the post you're replying to. Your reply makes no sense. nt

[Electric Monk]

89. Do you know what the word disingenuous means?

The post you replied to:

To say that guns are designed for anything but killing is disingenuous at best

They were saying guns are designed for killing, and people who say otherwise are liars.

Your post:

Then WHAT THE FUCK are they designed for.

BTW, target practice is just practice for killing.

dis·in·gen·u·ous
adjective \ˌdis-in-ˈjen-yə-wəs, -yü-əs-\

: not truly honest or sincere : giving the false appearance of being honest or sincere
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disingenuous

[etherealtruth]

96. Exactly

[madinmaryland]

78. Thread win!!

[LanternWaste]

28. I imagine that's one of many ways to rationalize tools designed to kill as something they are not.

I imagine that's one of many ways to rationalize tools designed to kill as something they are in fact, not.

[hack89]

30. When 99.99 % of gun owners never kill someone

It is not a rationalization - it is a reality that you, in your desire to paint all gun owners as pre-criminals, refuse to address.

[LanternWaste]

34. I don't need to paint anyone as anything as the painting is already done..

I don't need to paint anyone as anything as the painting is already done by the actual "artists"... regardless, enjoy the your fallacious inferences, we expect nothing more and nothing less.

(Insert self-serving comment here for better validation)

[hack89]

55. Math has never been the strong suit of gun control activists

That is why statistics and actual facts are not welcomed. Fine with me - it makes you feel superior so you will get something out of it. It has no impact on me or reality.

[madinmaryland]

80. No one ever painted gun owners as pre-criminals, though gun owners seem to be doing a pretty good

job of doing exactly that with a lot of help from the NRA.

[Duckhunter935]

90. I will look for the posts

Yes there have been some on the board that have said that.

[Electric Monk]

91. "They were just another law abiding gun owner, until they weren't" has been used many times

but every time I've used it or seen it used, it was because it was true.

This is not saying that all law abiding gun owners will turn into non-law abiding gun owners, though, just that some do.

[madinmaryland]

76. This post has been nominated for the DUzy of the Year! Now go back to

FreeRepublic.

[mountain grammy]

4. K & R but a growing number of people do care enough to make it stop.

I have to believe we can do this. Every time I attend a meeting or rally, there are a few more people there.

[billh58]

12. Much to the dismay

of the cold-dead-hands gun nuts, public opinion and awareness of the growing gun violence problem is gaining momentum. On the anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre, gun huggers are celebrating their "victory" over sensible gun control and sane gun legislation.

That is the smugness and indifference that will be their undoing, and help the growing gun control movement gain ground.

[hack89]

32. You are pretty divorced from reality if you think gun control is growing nt

[billh58]

36. Your version of reality

is skewed by the NRA and your Gungeon buddies.

[hack89]

57. I have heard the same song and dance since 1994

"Just wait, everything has changed" has been the motto of the gun control movement for decades - as they steadily loose ground.

[madinmaryland]

81. I feel like I have entered an alternate world that Democrats now support the NRA.

Please say that is not true, as reading through this thread, it seems that you believe that the Democratic Party should support whatever the NRA says.

Seriously??

[hack89]

83. I support gun control

I am also a gun owner. Some here
refuse to accept pro- gun Dems.

[madinmaryland]

85. You are wrong. We refuse to accept pro-NRA Dems. Pro-NRA democrat is an oxymoron.

[hack89]

86. Pro NRA = someone that dares to disagree with me on gun control. Nt

[friendly_iconoclast]

99. Exactly..

[laundry_queen]

54. Yes, it will be their undoing.

They can't help themselves, even here at DU. But every time they do it, they turn more people off.

[Ranchemp.]

98. Really?

A growing gun control movement? Where?

[KamaAina]

5. This may be the article that puts you on the map!

[billh58]

11. Predictably, the NRA apologists

show up to defend the right of irresponsible gun owners to slaughter fellow Americans. ALL guns are designed to kill, and just because they are used for "sporting" purposes does not change that reality. All guns are lethal weapons, and their only purpose is to inflict death and injury.

Until reasonable Americans can overcome the political influence of the NRA, their corrupt sponsors, and their right-wing fanatical apologists, we will continue to be the most armed and dangerous "civilized" nation in the world -- by a large margin.

[Logical]

17. So you say ban guns? Collect them? What? n-t

[billh58]

20. No, only you

and the NRA are spreading that lie in the interest of fear mongering. The rest of us are advocating for reasonable and Constitutional laws aimed at tighter control and tracking of guns. You know, similar to Hawaii gun laws where the gun death and injury rate is the lowest in the nation?

[eqfan592]

22. Reasonable and constitutional laws like what?

EDIT: forget it, I put pretty much every anti-logic, anti-real solution person, including the OP, on full ignore. I'm tired of my damn feed being clogged up by non-solutions to serious problems. That's now my default response to this sort of crap.

[billh58]

24. And many, me included

feel that you and your kind don't see a fucking problem, and therefore see no need for a fucking solution.

I agree that the problem isn't guns -- it's the fucking easy access to fucking guns, and the lack of accountability and responsibility by those who enable the mentally ill and criminals to fucking obtain them.

The author of this piece has more objectivity than a stadium full of fucking gun nuts.

[Logical]

26. LOL, "fucking" explain New Hampshire and Vermont and Iowa and North Dakota. n-t

[Logical]

25. LOL, I hate the NRA and have many posts to prove it. Quit making shit up.....

Vermont's per 100,000 people gun murder rate is lower than any other state and it has almost no gun controls at all. Open carry allowed. And requires no permit to carry a gun either open or concealed.

Same with New Hampshire. Lower than your Hawaii! Relaxed gun laws.

Have you researched this at all??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state

[friendly_iconoclast]

43. Do you have *any* arguments not made of straw?

Predictably, the NRA apologists...show up to defend the right of irresponsible gun owners to slaughter fellow Americans.

Kindly point one out to us.

[malaise]

14. Great piece

Not yet MADD, but mothers against massacres is growing.

[spanone]

18. ^^^^YEP^^^^

[hack89]

21. MADD advocated the responsible use of alcohol

A group advocating the safe and responsible use of guns would be a good thing. They could go into the schools like MADD and DARE and teach kids how to react if they find a gun - that alone would save many lives.

[eqfan592]

23. Thank you for being part of the problem.

Unfortunately, people who would rather react emotionally than logically will eat up what you're serving.

Meanwhile, the real root causes of violent crime, such as poor mental healthcare, poverty, education, etc, will continue to get paid lip service at best.

I do hope you're proud of yourself.

[LanternWaste]

31. Difficult to expect any other outcomes from the most heavily armed nation on the planet.

Difficult to expect any other outcomes from the most heavily armed nation on the planet. Also difficult to expect rationale thought from those who wish to maintain that predatory social apex.

[billh58]

35. Exactly.

You summed it up very well.

[BlueJazz]

37. You know I'm also an Australian citizen. I try to keep my mouth shut on some subjects.

[Packerowner740]

39. I thought guns didn't meet the special exemption in GD anymore.

[Duckhunter935]

40. as far as I know

Guns are not to be in GD anymore but some around here ignore the rules. I would think some of the Mods need to tighten up again as several gun topics are in GD again. I have not seen anything of a new exception posed.

[Raven]

42. The anniversary of Sandy Hook is tomorrow.

Seems like a reasonable reason for an exception to be made.

[Duckhunter935]

46. Then ask Skinner

But as of now it is not allowed in GD and some here just refuse to follow the rules and they are free to post in the correct place. I hate to say this but the Mods are asleep at the switch and it is just becoming a hate fest again. We are getting the old name calling bullshit again by the same users

[Eleanors38]

53. The mods aren't asleep. They see the hatefest.

[Eleanors38]

51. The usual glut of hatefulness is not very exceptional.

[Packerowner740]

44. If I wanted to see posts about guns

I would go to the gun forum/group, whatever it is.

[cry baby]

48. Take it to the ATA.

You sure seem to have a lot of complaints about DU and it's members.

Hope you don't get all "butthurt" that I've noticed that. eye roll

[Duckhunter935]

49. American Thyroid Association

?

[cry baby]

50. Sure, he/she could ask the American Thyroid Association...

but better luck would be had in the "ask the administrators" forum here on DU.

[Packerowner740]

52. I thought that term was unacceptable, or so I was told.

[cry baby]

56. LOL! I used the term to tweak you since you painted many

with that term yesterday...hence the quotation marks in my post.

[Packerowner740]

58. Yeah, I know you did cry baby

I can take it.

[cry baby]

59. Glad to hear that.

Other DUers might be interested in what you think about the substance of posts, not just complaining about where OPs are posted or complaining about other DUers.

Do you have an opinion on the content of what Mr. Pitt wrote in the OP?

[Packerowner740]

60. I definately think something needs to be done

A multi step approach, background checks, mental health, school security etc.

[cry baby]

69. Do you advocate extended background checks or just the ineffective ones in place now?

Assault weapons ban?
Tougher laws for careless gun owners that leave their guns out so that they are accessible to others (children, criminal brothers in law, etc.)?

[Packerowner740]

73. Background checks whenever and wherever possible

Set up an ATF table at every gun show so that no guns leave without having a check done. Make it possible so private citizens can do checks somehow.

AWB? Not possible. Too many out there and they aren't really the problem. A couple of hi profile tragic events recently but for the most part the problem is handguns.

Tougher laws for carelessness, absolutely.

[cry baby]

84. Sounds reasonable...

but I believe that semi auto weapons should have the same restrictions in manufacture and acquisition as full auto weapons. Huge app fees and federal registry would make a dent and make us citizens feel safer.

But, of course, you are absolutely correct when you state that handguns are the real widespread problem.

Good ideas you have there, and thank you for the substance.

[Agschmid]

92. +1

[Packerowner740]

93. It looks like they will be part of GD

And therefore part of the daily discussion in GD

[Agschmid]

94. It will change again.

Just going to be a rough week for me. Is trash can GD... But I'm a host so I don't think I can.

[Electric Monk]

95. You poor delicate flowers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024178268

[Agschmid]

97. Really?

That's what you've got?

[longship]

61. Surely, one of your best, WilliamPitt!

If only this very message could seep into every person living here, or anywhere, we'd all be better off.

But this here is what all our country was founded on. Not guns for anybody. But a well regulated militia. The NRA and the gun rights folks love the right to bear, but have forgotten about, or conveniently ignore, the well regulated part.

Meanwhile, our childrens' blood flows. For what?

on edit: A hearty R&K

[Duckhunter935]

63. I think you do know

that "well regulated" meant well equipped back when the 2nd was written right? And the public had the exact same rifles as the government.

[defacto7]

62. My biggest kick in a month.

K & R

[Paladin]

64. Thanks, WilliamPitt.

Always good to expose our resident Gun Enthusiasts at their loathsome worst.

[hatrack]

67. And here's the bottom line: as a country, we're basically OK with it.

If we weren't OK with it, something would have happened by now. Something would have changed.

But no. We all get to experience that nauseated rush, from time to time. We all get to watch the video footage of the tactical units screening weeping students. We tune in for the clips of screaming parents outside the security zone.

On occasion, there's enough blood on the walls that the aftershocks last more than a couple of days, but the ripples typically subside after a day or three, and it's on to The Big Game, or Kardashians, or whatever the distraction du jour is.

Because freedom, you see.

[Warren Stupidity]

71. ________________GUNZ_________________

[Liberal_in_LA]

75. sad pic