Tag: mass shootings

The Great Unraveling of America

Buck Banks

“All I know is that it’s all starting to feel like the same event — a Great Unraveling of America. The feeling only grew worse when I read that the authorities in El Paso believe some of the wounded may not go to local hospitals … because they’re so afraid of our immigration cops. It seemed like one more sign that conditions in this country — the violence, the fear, the embrace of racism and xenophobia from the highest levels, and the long slide into neofascism — have become intolerable. And yet — with the blood of El Paso and Dayton not yet dry — far too many are still tolerating this.”

— Will Bunch

Lawmaker Offers AR-15 as Fundraiser Door Prize

Buck Banks

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Day after the worst mass shooting in American history, Rep. Andy Holt (R-TN), is firmly standing behind his decision to give away am AR-15 semi-automatic rifle as a door prize at his next fundraiser, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. Said Holt: “It has nothing to do with the style of weapon. It has everything to do with who’s behind the weapon.”

Obama Reacts to the Latest Mass Shooting

Buck Banks

This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal. If we truly care about this — if we’re going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough.

— President Obama, quoted by Politico, after yet another mass shooting.

When Massacres Become Normal

Buck Banks

The regularity of mass killings breeds familiarity. The rhythms of grief and outrage that accompany them become — for those not directly affected by tragedy — ritualised and then blend into the background noise. That normalisation makes it ever less likely that America’s political system will groan into action to take steps to reduce their frequency or deadliness. Those who live in America, or visit it, might do best to regard them the way one regards air pollution in China: an endemic local health hazard which, for deep-rooted cultural, social, economic and political reasons, the country is incapable of addressing. This may, however, be a bit unfair. China seems to be making progress on pollution.

— The Economist, in June