In a recent editorial,
the Hartford Courant notes, “U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has a
well-oiled speech on the issue [of gun bans]. Considering his 14-hour filibuster after the
Orlando shooting in the summer of 2016, he’s got his points together. And every
time there’s another mass shooting, he drags them out again, as he did on
Tuesday.” Murphy has had a good deal of practice fulminating at the U.S. Senate
podium; most recently he accused his fellow legislators of being complicit in
the murder of 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
“This scourge of school shootings,” Murphy said, “only happens
here [in the United States]. It only happens here not because of
coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our
inaction. We [his fellow Senators] are responsible for
a level of mass atrocities that happens in this country with zero parallel
anywhere else.”
Neither Murphy nor the Courant editorial board likes the AR-15, an “assault weapon” according to the paper, or the National Rifle Association (NRA). And if Murphy had his druthers, he would put aside the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which provides that Congress shall make no law impeding freedom of speech or freedom of assembly, and the second amendment as well, which prevents Congress from constructing laws that inhibit the right of a free people to bear arms in order to defend themselves from a national state that has turned its face away from such natural rights as free assembly and the right of self-defense – the NRA is, after all, a lawful assembly – so as to allow Murphy and a few editorial boards to restrict lawful gun ownership.
In fact, Murphy MUST
override these two amendments to accomplish his purpose, a high hill to climb. Sisyphus
fails in toting his rock up the steep hill, but he gains immortality or fame,
the only after-life of people who do believe in the eternal verities. In
politics, nothing is as successful as waging a losing battle. This is true for
two reasons: 1) no adverse consequences attach to a measure promoted by a
politician that CANNOT be enacted into law, and 2) a politician passionately
tilting at windmills, particularly if the windmill can be made to appear odious
– is not the NRA a monster whose hands run red with the blood of innocent
children? – is likely to tickle the fancy of electors who want to cheer David
over Goliath.
Here is the problem
with Murphy’s ordeal: even if he and Senator Dick Blumenthal were to be
successful in shaming the Senate into passing a gun restriction law like that passed
in Connecticut following the mass murder of school children in Sandy Hook
Elementary School several years ago, the banning of specific weapons would not assure
the safety of children attending schools. Indeed, the Sandy Hook mass murderer
was armed with a Glock semi-automatic pistol, and he carried with him in the
trunk of his car a semi-automatic shotgun, a killing weapon every bit as lethal
as an AR-15. An assault weapon is whatever instrument can be used to successfully
accomplish a murderous purpose. Mass murderers have used cars to mow down
innocent civilians, and bombs and assault knives. Terrorists in Israel used explosives
to murder school children on busses.
That has not
happened lately – because Israeli police officials and politicians and
legislators were not interested in providing false solutions to real problems
that only helped politicians on the make achieve office by publicly agonizing
over the bodies of dead school children. There are no school buses in Israel;
school children take public transportation and often find themselves among
armed civilians. One must have a permit to own a weapon; weapons are carried
openly in public only by those who can show a sufficient reason for openly carrying
weapons, such as ex-military persons. Since military service is mandatory for
80 percent of the population, it is not at all uncommon for school children
using public transportation to find themselves in the company of men and women
openly carrying assault weapons.
Some school systems
in the United States have adopted active measures -- predictive profiling for
instance -- deployed in Israel to assure the safety of school children. These
methods DO reduce risks, largely because they enable the children themselves
to adopt non-reactive, predictive measures useful in any social situation.
Predictive profiling is not concerned with profiling persons; students, school personnel
and armed guards are trained to focus on things and unusual behaviors, so as to
prevent violence in schools, rather than merely reacting therapeutically—much too
late -- after a mass shooting has
occurred.
The measures proposed by Murphy and Blumenthal may usefully
advance the interests of Murphy and Blumenthal, but they are not preventative
measures. A trip to Israel or a quick read of “The
Israeli Model—Adversary
Based Security For Your School,"
a power point presentation offered by the Indiana Department of Education,
would refocus energies and help to create a safe school environment for school
children. False solutions to problems advance the interests only of those who
advance false solutions, and those who advance such solutions seek to escape rather
than confront realities.
Comments