The Politics Of Dead Children

Why won’t Americans pass gun control?

Parents grieve after a shooting at a private Nashville school on Monday, March 27. Image via NBC

by Ben Cohen

Why won’t Americans pass gun control?

This is the question most of my non-American friends ask me after another school shooting or gun massacre, and my answer is always the same.

For outside observers, America’s refusal to deal with an easily solvable epidemic of insane death and misery is, well, insane. For many years I couldn’t understand why Republicans consistently blocked sensible gun regulation and reform. But over time I slowly began to understand the rationale behind leaving small children to die bloody deaths, and why there is only one real way to stop it.

The ‘why’

I don’t believe that Republicans want school children to die. I think some of them genuinely believe that “a good guy with a gun” is the solution to potential mass shooters (despite mountains of evidence to the contrary). But I now know with almost total certainty that the majority of Republicans just don’t care enough about dead children to do anything about it. Why? Because their political careers are more important. So they choose professional success over the lives of children and thousands of innocent Americans every single time. This vicious cycle means moderate Republicans are almost completely powerless to do anything about it. As Carl Hulse in the NY Times writes:

As Republican voters have become more conservative, Republican lawmakers have dug in deeply against any notion that new strictures on gun purchases are an antidote to mass shootings. They say that such restrictions are unconstitutional, even though adult Americans would continue to have easy access to weapons purchases if they became law.

Republicans like Mr. Cramer [Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota], understand that they would receive little political reward for joining the push for laws to limit access to guns, including assault-style weapons. But they know for certain that they would be pounded — and most likely left facing a primary opponent who could cost them their job — for voting for gun safety laws or even voicing support for them.

When Hulse writes that “Republican voters have become more conservative”, what he really means is that the crazies — specifically Trump crazies — are now the dominant force in the party. This means they set the agenda and force the more moderate voices in the party into submission. Extremists declare anyone opposed to gun control is a Communist liberal, scaring the rest of the party into parroting the same ridiculous claims. Gun rights and gun ownership are synonymous with being a real America, so even the slightest caution creates a hysterical response from the hard liners.

Perhaps the most bizarre spectacle highlighting this madness was Donald Trump being forced to walk back a suggestion after a mass shooting in 2018 that red flag laws could allow law enforcement to “take the firearms first and then go to court" to prevent more tragedies. The former president was publicly humiliated by Tucker Carlson for his comments, and he never made the mistake again.

Rank hypocrisy

It should be noted that Republicans are deeply concerned about their own safety when it comes to guns. Take for example the emails obtained by the Washington Post earlier this year showing Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s campaign asking city officials in Tampa to ban weapons from his victory celebration. Notably, DeSantis’s campaign also “suggested that the city take responsibility for the firearms ban” and “not the governor” for his event at the city run convention center.

In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump banned firearms at his rallies after a man was arrested for trying to disarm a police officer at one of his events.

So much for their faith in the “good guys with a gun”.

Crazy gets crazier

Before the MAGA movement emerged there was still some hope that Americans could solve the nightmare of never ending gun massacres. But after 2016 liberals had to engage in a fight for the survival of democracy itself, putting issues like gun control at the bottom of the priority list.

We now live in a society that has not only normalizes mass death in schools, but uses the tragedies to score political points. Given MAGA supporters are not bound by the laws of evidence or even basic tethering to reality, their response to new massacres are more deranged than ever:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 @RepMTG

How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking? Everyone can stop blaming guns now.

Using the Nashville school shooting to attack trans people is a new low for Republicans, but an entirely predictable one. If you get rewarded for grotesque behavior, behaving more grotesquely becomes entirely logical.

With Democrats now in power gun reform has a better chance of passing, but it is an uphill battle made infinitely worse by a political movement that refuses to engage in good faith.

What to do

Bob Cesca wrote an excellent piece earlier this week suggesting that one of the best ways to combat the gun problem is by changing American culture, specifically disconnecting “the false associations between masculinity, virility, power, patriotism, and gun ownership”. I tend to agree with him on this, but have less faith that it is possible given the rapidly metastasizing fascist movement taking over the GOP.

As Bob points out there was a very successful PR campaign against tobacco, but guns are so central to the right’s self image I have a hard time seeing them giving them up. If liberals push too hard my manipulating culture, the backlash could be immense. We have seen this with left wing identity politics taken to an extreme, so any efforts to combat gun culture need to be very, very sophisticated. Again, I’m all for it, but I have no idea how it could be done.

The solution (?)

I tend to think that the best way to combat this issue is through bargaining. The left is going to have to give something big in return for sensible gun control, but it will almost certainly be worth it. They must negotiate from a position of strength though, and that means when (and if) Democrats regain control of all branches of government with sizable majorities. President Biden did actually manage to get some sensible legislation through in a bipartisan gun safety deal last year, just before Republicans took back control of Congress. The deal included better mental health screening and background checks on on those under 21. While inadequate, it provides evidence that deals can be made, particularly when Democrats control the levers of power.

It may not be possible to ban the purchase of guns in America, but there are other very effective ways of reducing the potential for harm. If you want purchase a firearm in the UK for example, the police review “information from a registered doctor setting out whether or not the applicant has any relevant medical history – including mental health, neurological conditions or substance abuse”. The UK has very little gun crime, and almost no gun massacre.

I could see a deal being made for nationwide mental health and criminal record evaluations to be a necessary requirement to own a gun. It would take a monumental effort and some serious horse trading, but with enough political pressure and some big incentives, Republicans might at some point see enough upside to go along with it.

Polls show conclusively Americans want common sense gun control, and as more and more children die each year the optics get worse for all the holdouts. Republicans will only move if their political careers benefit from doing so. Democrats then need to find a way to make it worth their while.