9/11.2

After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from everyone who didn't do it.

william burroughs

i've been helping my overworked sister out on her new show, ghostwriting lead-ins and filler for the various stories she produces.  she texted me this weekend, said, "forget that piece for monday--it's gonna be all sandy hook elementary, all week long."

well, of course it is.

and why shouldn't it be?  the media and the politicians don't get to partake of a feeding frenzy like this one every goddam day, and boy, are they making the most of it.  those broken little bodies in connecticut weren't even cold before opportunistic, authoritarian "progressives" were out there shrilly demanding new laws, regulations and crackdowns to "fix" a problem they themselves played no small part in creating, helped along by a voracious, non-stop media that would never dream of examining the role it plays in creating and encouraging these monsters.

and the people?  instead of taking even a moment to reflect on the path that has led us to this sorry societal state, they eat it all up indiscriminately, their emotions high and critical faculties dulled by a half-century of ever-increasing, dumbed-down media manipulation and unearned overindulgence.  of course the guns must be the problem--easy, right?

i could go into all the reasons why the guns aren't the problem--i could go all micro and talk about adderall-addled, fatherless kids, and parents who substitute mindless consumerism for actual parenting.  i could talk about marathon stints spent in splendid, brain-rewiring techno-isolation behind a joystick playing "grand theft auto" and "call of duty", racking up rewards for every kill.

or i could go macro and talk about how politicians from time immemorial have exploited emotionally-charged crises to foist upon the populace wars and draconian, freedom-restricting laws that, five minutes prior to the crisis, the populace wouldn't have for a moment entertained--all to keep them "safe".

or i could even get specific and point out that violent crime has plummeted over the past decade even as gun ownership has skyrocketed.  or that states that have enacted concealed-carry legislation have seen the greatest drops in gun violence. or that most of the gun violence that does occur happens in those war-zone neighborhoods that are the happy product of the politicians' "war on poverty". or even that countries like switzerland in which the preponderance of families own at least one gun enjoy a very low gun-violence crime rate.

but i've already spent the weekend and much of today doing that--conversation after pointless, fruitless conversation--and i'm tired.

and i see the handwriting on the wall.  because this one--this one--will be the 9/11 of which the gun-control cadre have for so long dreamed.  i know it--and so, for that matter, does the NRA, which is laying quite low while the demagogues cry their crocodile tears and prepare their latest onslaught on what little freedom we have left.  it will happen in incremental steps, of course, like it always does, but it will happen nonetheless.

for the record, as of the date of this post, i do not own, nor have i ever owned, a gun.

this state of affairs will most likely soon change.