Yes, Politicize This Tragedy
In the wake of still more mass murders in cities across the United States, those aligned with the gun lobby and gun rights voters are begging us: “don’t politicize this tragedy.” They want us to feel like it’s crass and heartless to demand action. They want us to doubt the causal factors. They want the story to fade. Anything to get through the next 48 hours without having say anything to jeopardize their donors or voting blocs.
Throughout our history, we have politicized tragedies and used them as a rallying cry to force action. From Pearl Harbor to 9/11 to hurricanes and floods, we have mobilized the nation to face down tragedy and human suffering. Only in this one case, do our pro-gun elected officials plead and beg with us to stand down.
No. No I won’t stand down. It’s not crass. It’s not political opportunism. It’s a glaring, in-your-face call to action that we, quite literally, ignore at our peril. Something must be done. The impasse must be broken.
So let’s make it plain.
Easy, unvetted, unregulated, unrestricted access to high-capacity, rapid fire weapons and ammunition is a national crisis and it must end. Now. The body counts are too high and it is only getting worse.
A firearm is a tool with a single, malevolent purpose: to put a hole in a living thing in the purpose of killing it. That is its only practical use. Period. There is NO other instrument in the hands of the general public that fits this definition. And that makes it uniquely dangerous and worthy of clear, specific, practical regulation.
Specifically:
- All guns should be registered to the owner
- All gun owners should be licensed and renewed at regular intervals
- All licenses should require background checks
- All courts should be empowered to disarm a person deemed to be a public danger
- No civilian should be allowed to possess a weapon designed for rapid infliction of mass casualties
- We need to break the impasse on smart guns with biometric locks
- Gun owners who carry outside the home should be required to purchase liability insurance
These measures create conditions where law enforcement can begin to stem the flow of weapons to criminals and those with malicious intent. In a society where you can legally sell a firearm to a stranger in the parking lot of a Motel 6, enforcement is, for all practical purposes, impossible. Neither the seller nor the buyer has any obligation or accountability in the transaction, so “sting” operations (the same way we do traffic enforcement, drug busts, and prostitution busts) don’t exist. Their hands are tied. Untie them.
In addition to gun regulation, we must provide our law enforcement the statutory tools to investigate and shut down domestic terrorists before they act. There is currently no federal domestic terror statute. Law enforcement must instead find a specific crime that fits the actions of a specific actor and use that as an investigative tool.
Finally, we must come to grips with the very thorny and complex issue of hate speech that incites violence. This is, frankly, the hardest step. Our First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, expression, and association, especially when it comes to political themes. We cannot take a meat cleaver to the law without opening it up to abuse and censorship of legitimate opposition. Still, we must find a way.
More important than any legislation, however, is us. This is our fault. Yours. Mine. Theirs. We have not insisted. We have not demanded. We have not shut down the normal business of our elected institutions until they act. We have not held the worst among us accountable for the sly, later-deniable rhetoric that provides both inspiration and cover for hateful ideologies to take root. We throw up our hands and decry them, then move on. We aren’t careful with our own words, or we are too interested in protecting our own sense of virtue to accept the hurt we cause, day in and day out. We cannot allow ourselves that privilege any longer.