Yesterday a mass shooter opened fire in a classroom at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. He killed 19 children and 2 teachers. This comes just 10 days after a mass shooter opened fire at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. He killed 10 Blacks and injured 3.
But here is why this shooting makes it seem like Groundhog Day in gun-crazy USA:
In each case, the NRA’s cynical marketing foil, “a good guy with a gun,” attempted to stop the mass shooter. Except their guns were no match for the assault weapons the mass shooters were firing and the body armor they were wearing to perpetrate their crimes. The good guys had to call for backup with more fire power – as they invariably have to do. But this gave the mass shooters critical time to do their dastardly deeds.
The outpouring of thoughts and prayers followed like a proverbial flood. And I’m sure some tweeters really meant every character in their tweets.
But, mass shootings in America have become so commonplace, you’d be forgiven for thinking the only thing noteworthy about this one is that it gave us a little reprieve from the media’s saturation coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, nothing betrays the Groundhog-Day nature of this tragic national farce quite like Democrats begging Republicans to pass gun-control legislation to stop this madness. After all, it is self-evident that the more Democrats beg, the more empowered Republicans feel to reject their pleas – the rising body count of school children be damned.
Because the only thing that matters to Republicans is power! And their power comes from carrying water for the NRA, whose gun-manufacturing bosses see mass shootings like these as nothing but a boon to their bottom line – the rising body count of school children be damned.
And few, if any, would dare say this, but the fact that the victims last time were Black, this time Hispanic, and often non-white, only means that these MAGA white Republicans couldn’t care less about them…
But, apropos of Groundhog Day, I just published a podcast episode on last week’s shooting in Buffalo, which said pretty much all I care to. So I refer you to “Buffalo Mass Shooting Shows a Nation Divided Against Itself,” May 21, 2022. If you prefer reading, however, I refer you to the equally comprehensive “Atlanta and Boulder Suffer Latest Mass Shootings in Gun-Crazy USA. Blah, Blah, Blah...,” March 24, 2021.
Even so, I cannot overstate the media’s complicity in fostering the Groundhog-Day feature of this tragedy. Because, as usual, they are making a martyr of this psycho by giving him the fame he clearly coveted.
Only that explains them showing his pathetic mug everywhere, regaling us with insights from his social media pages (no doubt reporters are searching for his “manifesto”), and reporting pop psychology about his methods and motives. But has doing this after every mass shooting ever prevented any mass shooting…?
Meanwhile, it’s so clear to see, especially in this age of instant celebrity, why some loser kid would find this route to infamy irresistible. Their coverage not only glorifies each mass shooter but incentivizes copycats.
Frankly, the media cover these mass shootings like natural disasters – complete with doomsday music, heart-rending chyrons, and eye-witness interviews – all of which they know will keep viewers watching like rubberneckers gawking at a car wreck. Not to mention the news anchors who affect such emotion, you’d think they just heard the breaking news that a member of their own family had just been gunned down…
But what drives media coverage of mass shootings is what drives the manufacture of the assault weapons these shooters use. And that is financial profit – the welfare and safety of the American people be damned.
Yet media coverage of this mass shooting completely detracted from coverage of the humiliating defeat of Trump-endorsed candidates in yesterday’s Republican primaries. This was not lost on me.
Because I fear this mass distraction device might turn out to be a dress rehearsal. Yes, I am cynical enough to think Republicans might have a mass shooter lying in wait to detract media coverage from the Jan. 6 congressional hearings, which are scheduled to begin airing in prime time on June 9.
After all, the last thing they want is the media focusing the country’s attention on the way Trump and his MAGA cronies attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Hell, they blithely sacrifice the lives of schoolchildren just for NRA campaign contributions. So why wouldn’t they? Because they know that, if enough Americans see Republicans being exposed as treasonous enablers, they would never be elected to govern again.
NOTE: The only way to redress this epidemic of mass shootings is for the American people to give Democrats an unequivocal mandate to enact gun-control legislation. And they can do this by voting against Republicans to an unprecedented degree in federal elections.
Unfortunately, as Donald Trump demonstrated in spades, some Americans are so blinded by partisan politics, they routinely vote against their own self-interest. Only this explains why so many poor whites gleefully vote for Republican politicians to take away their healthcare, just to provide tax breaks for millionaires.
So, alas, until the next mass shooting …
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Buffalo mass shooting… Atlanta and Boulder…