Ask not for whom the gunfire rings out
So, today we should probably discuss the Kardashians since they’ve made news recently with weddings and all sorts of gossipy stuff. Didn’t you just love her dress? And he was so handsome.
I might have suggested the topic be the mindless massacre of 21 people — mostly children — in Uvalde, but we already know that our elected leaders are not going to do anything.
For people who wonder, “Why can’t we ever get anything done about gun violence?” there is a blindingly simple answer.
The people we have voted into elected leadership positions in our state (and mostly the feds, too) are there specifically to make certain that nothing is done.
A failure for people like Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and the whole lot of Republicans would be to make Texans safer from gun violence. They do not want it to happen; ergo, it will not, happen, not by one scintilla.
Making Texans safer would mean some tiny bit of sacrifice — 99 percent of gun owners would never feel it — on the High Altar of gun rights. Now, all that is sacrificed on that unholy place are the bodies of children, or blacks, or Jews, or in a few cases totally random innocent citizens who just happened to find themselves in the path of a tumblin’ piece of hot lead.
Are you beginning to understand now? The outcomes are not tragic surprises, they are little blips we’re expected to accept in the name of the freedom for gun manufacturers. This has almost nothing to do with gun ownership, but with gun entrepreneurship.
Big business, big bucks, big campaign contributions. Second Amendment? Hardly. This is a second feeding at the trough for politicians.
I have written tens of thousands of words since the terror at Columbine High School in Colorado to go along with the millions written by others decrying the foolishness of the nation’s gun laws. That has been a massive waste of time for all of us. Keyboard warriors need no longer apply.
Voting the scoundrels out would be a start and one might think that such a thing would be easy, especially given Abbott’s abysmal failure as governor, Patrick’s general lunacy and Paxton’s disregard of the law.
How many times must a man be indicted before people see he’s a crook? Cue up “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
The changing of the guard will not be easy, though Beto O’Rourke might be able to pull it off in his race against Abbott. It is far less certain that Patrick or Paxton can be beat.
The clean-up needs to go deeper than just the top, though, to be truly effective. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, much loved by the anti-abortion zealots, also would not lift a finger off the trigger to save the next round of school children who will be gunned down.
The first Republican to have enough moral courage to take the step against guns will also be the next one vilified by other Republicans as being a RINO and sent packing from Austin or wherever he serves. Moral courage is not something found in many politicians, period, but the current group of Republicans may set a record for lacking those attributes.
They are giving hope and prayers, of course. They hope they aren’t called upon to make a risky vote and they pray the rest of us are going to just forget it, let it slide, to focus on the price of gas, say.
What is most sickening of all is that they are probably going to see their prayers answered, not delivered by a merciful God, but by an American public who thirsts after news of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp verdict more than anything.
When will the slaughter visit us in East Texas? When will the camouflaged horseman ride?
I would not want to predict but after seeing the goons armed with assault-style rifles around the Smith County Courthouse during a Hank Gilbert campaign event a couple of years ago, I have no doubts that it will.
Despite all the ways you might believe your local school has sought to protect the students, the god of gun rights will have his due. Little children will be piteously sacrificed.
When it does happen don’t say that something must be done unless you yourself are willing to do it. No Republican lawmaker is going to help and they will probably still control most of the levers of government.
Ask not for whom the gunfire rings out. It rings out for you — and your children.
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