There is Nothing More American Than Gun Control

One of many lies the greedy gun lobby and its deluded followers perpetuate is that restrictions on guns is unAmerican, and specifically an invention of rich liberals to take away their rights so they can be controlled, or just have less freedom and fun.

And unfortunately even those liberals and the establishment press have accepted the premise that gun control is contrary to American history.

But there is nothing more American than gun control, not even guns.  And that specifically applies to the notorious Old West.  If you grew up on TV westerns you would know this but fortunately a recent article by Matt Jancer in Smithsonian Magazine and a book by Adam Winkler provide the actual historical record.  For example, in the West:

“Tombstone had much more restrictive laws on carrying guns in public in the 1880s than it has today,” says Adam Winkler, a professor and specialist in American constitutional law at UCLA School of Law. “Today, you’re allowed to carry a gun without a license or permit on Tombstone streets. Back in the 1880s, you weren’t.” Same goes for most of the New West, to varying degrees, in the once-rowdy frontier towns of Nevada, Kansas, Montana, and South Dakota.

And in the South:

The practice was started in Southern states, which were among the first to enact laws against concealed carry of guns and knives, in the early 1800s. While a few citizens challenged the bans in court, most lost. Winkler, in his book Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America, points to an 1840 Alabama court that, in upholding its state ban, ruled it was a state’s right to regulate where and how a citizen could carry, and that the state constitution’s allowance of personal firearms “is not to bear arms upon all occasions and in all places.”

But today we've insanely regressed to the point that this hardly qualifies as a civilization.  Our moral morons who prevent gun control are now as responsible for gun violence and deaths in Florida and elsewhere as the actual shooter.  Perhaps more culpable, if the shooter is mentally ill.

They are indicted by the merest recitation of the facts.  From Think Progress on Wednesday:

A 19-year-old former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday afternoon, killing 17 people.

The suspect, identified by law enforcement officials as Nikolas Cruz, chose the same weapon used to carry out some of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history: an AR-15.

It’s the same assault rifle that was used at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where Adam Lanza killed 27 people, including 20 first graders. It was used in Aurora, Colorado, where James Holmes killed 12 people in a movie theater. It was used in San Bernardino, California, where Syed Farook killed 14 people. And it was used in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Steven Paddock killed 58 people — to date, the deadliest mass shooting in United States history.

The AR-15 is the most popular rifle in the U.S. according to the National Rifle Association (NRA); there are an estimated 9 million in circulation as of 2014. Its popularity is likely due to the fact that it is extremely customizable and accommodates high capacity magazines that can fire off 100 rounds or more within minutes, features the NRA frequently touts on its blog.

The rifle’s popularity is also likely due to how frequently the NRA promotes it. The organization’s Twitter feed has regularly featured messages of admiration for the AR-15, even after the assault rifle was used to murder numerous people in several mass shootings."

From New York Daily Intelligencer on Thursday, noting that since the antipresident took office a year ago:

... the president has rolled back a rule that would have made it more difficult for the severely mentally ill to obtain firearms; made it easier for fugitives to purchase guns; and proposed $12 million in cuts to America’s background check system. He has also tried to slash $625 million from federal mental health programs, and $1 trillion from Medicaid, one of the top sources of health insurance for the mentally ill in the United States.

And, of course, Trump and his party have prevented any piece of legislation regulating the firearms market from making it into law."

By media accounts, the Parkland police did the best they could under current law in monitoring a troubled young man tempted by guns, as did his parents.  The school had practiced procedures in the case of a shooting and were as prepared as they could be.  Teachers acted heroically to protect their students.

But against an AR-15 in an open carry state, and the people running Florida and this country, they were helpless.

Update: 2/16:According to an article in the Washington Post, the number of school shootings in the US in 2018 provided by a nonprofit group and widely reproduced (by ThinkProgress among many others) is inflated.  Their argument is persuasive, and I've removed those statistics from the ThinkProgress quotes.  Inaccuracy in such matters is damaging because it's distracting and, well, because it's inaccurate.

 The figures that the Post accepts are bad enough: An ongoing Washington Post analysis has found that more than 150,000 students attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999...A recent study of World Health Organization data published in the American Journal of Medicine that found that, among high-income nations, 91 percent of children younger than 15 who were killed by bullets lived in the United States...On average, two dozen children are shot every day in the United States, and in 2016 more youths were killed by gunfire — 1,637 — than during any previous year this millennium."

The Post piece is accompanied by the photo below, of a mother outside Parkland school after the shooting.  I noticed the smudge on her forehead: not only was the shooting on Valentine's Day but it was also Ash Wednesday, a holy day of repentance for many Christians.  The ashes are reminders of death.