It’s the Guns, Stupid

Are we so inured to the premise that nothing can be done about mass ownership of military weapons that gun control has vanished from discourse and debate?

By ROBERT KUTTNER

Former President Trump has now survived two assassination attempts. The coverage of the first, on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the would-be assassin was able to gain a clear sight line on a rooftop outside the Secret Service security perimeter, emphasized the failure of the Secret Service to coordinate with local law enforcement. The director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, disgraced by the near miss, resigned. Investigations are still under way.

In the Sept. 15 assassination attempt, where a gunman was hiding in the bushes on the edge of one of Trump’s golf courses, is described as more of a systemic failure. It’s just not feasible for the Secret Service to monitor every inch of possible harm in large outdoor spaces. An agent, one hole ahead of the former president, got lucky and spotted a rifle sticking out of some bushes a few hundred yards away. Had he not, the potential assassin could have gotten off shots from a semiautomatic at close range. The coverage has pointed to the fact that Trump’s security detail is smaller than that of a sitting president and does not cover the entire golf course.

In both cases, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris put out statements that they were thankful that Trump was safe and that there is no place for political violence in this country. Biden spoke of giving the Secret Service more resources.

Neither mentioned guns.

Indeed, guns have been weirdly missing from the national commentary. Obviously, if we want presidential candidates and schoolchildren safe from assassination attempts and mass classroom mayhem, the most direct route is not a more massive Secret Service or better duck-and-cover school drills, but ending mass ownership of assault weapons.

A similar script played out in the most recent classroom murders, in Winder, Georgia. The questions asked included why the father bought a 14-year-old an assault weapon and whether he should be charged with murder (he was); why communication between law enforcement, tipped to the child’s violent social media posts, and the school failed; why the school had failed to respond in time to the mother’s call half an hour before the shooting, and whether the school had adequate security.

Did somebody say, why are assault weapons legal, least of all for kids? If so, I didn’t hear it.

I get that J.D. Vance is capable of saying that school shootings are just “a fact of life,” so just get used to it. “We’ve got to bolster [school] security,” Vance added, “so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children they’re not able.” Vance of course did not mention gun control.

But are Biden and Harris so fearful of the reaction by gun owners in, say, Montana or North Carolina that they won’t touch the subject with a rake? And have commentators been so thoroughly trained by the NRA that gun control has ceased to be part of the conversation? After the attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life in 1981, the national debate that followed was all about gun control.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton, with the support of both parties, signed into law a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. That ban was allowed to expire in 2004 after massive lobbying by the NRA. In the decade that followed, according to the Brady Campaign, mass shootings involving the deaths of six or more people increased by 347%.

Today, most gun control advocates are so intimidated that all they are willing to discuss is a feeble thing called “gun safety.” Sorry, but would-be assassins and school shooters can be perfectly trained in gun safety, the better to kill people.

The fact is that about 61% of Americans generally favor stronger gun control according to Pew, and almost two-thirds favor banning assault weapons.

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, a gun owner, is well positioned to say, “If you want to use assault weapons, you can join the military like I did. If you want a gun to hunt or for personal protection, I support you. But you don’t need an assault weapon whose sole purpose is mass killing. They make all of us less safe.”

But don’t hold your breath.

And, yes, the Supreme Court keeps making it easier for anyone to own any sort of gun. That’s the same debased Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade and most of the Voting Rights Act, and pronounced that a sitting president is immune from most criminal prosecution.

Well, leading Democrats are talking adding term limits for justices, or expanding the Court, presumably so that Roe v. Wade and civil rights enforcement can be restored. Gun control needs to be added to that list.

Otherwise, we can expect more school shootings, more thoughts and prayers, more assassination attempts on presidents, and more perverse demands for better security, when the real solution is at point-blank range.

Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect (prospect.org) and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School. Like him on facebook.com/RobertKuttner and/or follow him at twitter.com/rkuttner.

From The Progressive Populist, October 15, 2024

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