America Values The Right To Bear Arms More Than Children's Lives

Gun culture is a lie

From the outside, it appears America cares more about the freedom to bear arms than the freedom to children’s lives. In fact, according to Pew Research, 60% of Americans believe that gun laws should be stricter, and if you listen to Joe Scarborough, that number is closer to 80%. Nevertheless, the majority in a democratic republic wants stricter gun laws, but their elected representatives don’t abide.

Maine representatives did, in fact, abide. Maine has no background checks or red flag laws. They don’t ban high-capacity magazines and do not require a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Maine residents resist tightening of gun laws in their state and recently voted no on a proposal to add a 72-hour waiting period on private gun sales. Even a vote to ban bump stocks failed.

The media advances the pragmatic narrative that Mainers are hunters, they live in the depths of savage wilderness, shooting dear to freeze for the winter, and make coats out of bear hides. Their population is a mere 1.4M which makes guns necessary for survival. They can’t wait 72-hours because they are HUNGRY NOW.

Give me a break. I suspect a majority of Lewiston residents get their meat from the local Shaw’s. I don’t disparage genuine hunting culture in Maine or other states, like Michigan or Alaska. But they lost me at failing to ban bump stocks and red flag laws, which are not related to hunting; they are related to personal freedoms.

A red flag law in Maine would have prevented this historic tragedy, as Robert Card racked up a collection of red flags this past summer. According to the AP, “A U.S. official told The Associated Press that Card was an Army reservist who had been taken by police for an evaluation after military officials became concerned that he was acting erratically in mid-July… [C]ommanders in… [his] regiment became concerned about Card’s behavior while the unit was training at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York… and asked for the police to be called.”

To reiterate, the ARMY called the NY STATE POLICE to transport him to the hospital for evaluation (and may have stayed up to two weeks.)

I hope the residents of Maine feel satisfied that despite the 18 (and counting) deaths and 13 injuries, Robert Card was righteously not deprived of his second amendment right to carry an automatic weapon with enough ammunition to finish the war in Ukraine. His right to carry that weapon, no matter the consequences, trumped the right of those 18 people’s right to life.

Like every community targeted by domestic terrorism, especially with gun cultures, like Texas which had several mass shootings this year, they thought it would never happen to them. Mass shootings? They happen in Sandy Hook, Vegas. Not here in our little 36,000-population-Lewiston.

Boy, you’d better watch out, ‘cause they’re coming for you next.

No, those are not Whole Foods locations, those 566 little red dots indicate where the tens of thousands of Americans died this year alone. Until 2016, the number one cause of death among children was car accidents. By 2020, the death rate of children and adolescents by gun violence increased 13.5% surpassing motor vehicle accidents. According to the New England Journal of Medicine,“From 2019 to 2020, the relative increase in the rate of firearm-related deaths of all types (suicide, homicide, unintentional, and undetermined) among children and adolescents was 29.5%.” Numbers and statistics are annoying to read. As an old boss used to tell me, “Don’t give me the ingredients, just give me the soup!”

The number one cause of death among children and adolescents is guns.

That’s the soup. Americans value their gun culture, their right to bear arms, even modified automatic ones, more than they value the right of American children’s lives. Older Americans die in mass shootings, too, but for the most part, the leading causes of death in American adults are 1. Heart Disease 2. Cancer 3. Covid-19.

The group most disadvantaged by “gun culture” is the group that is not allowed to vote. So how is it that the 60% majority demanding stricter gun laws aren’t making more substantial progress? Because both the House is majority Republicans, the party that, as we all know, leads the crusade for gun rights. In 2022, The NRA spent over $5M on lobbying expenses. That makes it look like they spend a lot less to influence legislators, but doesn’t include personal campaign donations. In 2019, for example, they gave Republican Mitt Romney nearly $14M in addition to many more republicans, adding up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

My question is, if the gun culture is so strongly supported, so prevalent in this country, why would the NRA need to spend SO MUCH money lobbying? If Americans largely supported an open, unregulated, firearm of your choice, god-given-right gun culture, we’d have that. The NRA could be like American Chemistry Council, adding up to only 14% of lobbying spenders. Gun culture is a lie.

Should I even mention the too good to be true hypocrisy that the Right to Life party attempting to ban abortion is also the party feverishly fighting for the Right to Bear Arms? No, it’s too obvious, because as we already knew at the beginning of this essay, America values the right to bear arms more than it values children’s lives.

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