We have a weekly Zoom call with several friends from college, now spread across the country, with one checking in occasionally from the other side of the world.
Yesterday we were commiserating about the country’s seeming inability to admit that no one needs military-style semi-automatic assault rifles like the AR-15 for hunting or any other purpose, and to reinstate the federal ban on such weapons as the beginning of meaningful gun control. eHIt’s hard to cope with the idea that we have become addicted to and prisoners of guns of the most lethal variety.
We’ve all seen data like these:
A vast majority of Americans supports universal background checks, keeping people with serious mental health issues from buying guns, bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, and so-called “red flag laws” that would allow police and family members to seek court orders to temporarily take guns away from those considered a risk to themselves and others. A majority of Americans, of both political parties, oppose carrying concealed weapons without a permit.
But still, Congress doesn’t seem to be able to act.
At some point, the open casket funeral of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Chicago boy who was visiting family in Money, Mississippi in 1955, when he was accused of whistling at a white woman in her family’s grocery store, and was then kidnapped, tortured, and lynched, came up as an example that shocked the nation and contributed to change.
His mother, Mamie Till Mobley, refused the offer of a closed casket funeral. Her decision is credited with reigniting the civil rights movement.
When Mamie held an open casket funeral on September 3, 1955, she urged the world to look at her son’s beaten, swollen body. The body, which was so disfigured that he was only identifiable by the initials on a ring on his finger, was viewed by thousands of people and photographed and published in newspapers and magazines.
“In order to come to grips with this tragedy, she saw Emmett as being crucified on the cross of racial injustice,” says Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “And she felt that in order for his life not to be in vain, that she needed to use that moment to illuminate all of the dark corners of America and help push America toward what we now call the Civil Rights Movement.”
Similary, graphic news coverage of the Vietnam War from the battlefields contributed to the erosion of public support for the war as the harsh reality started to turn attitudes in the crucial middle of the political spectrum.
Continuing with this line of thought, we started to wonder what would the impact be of exhibiting photos of the bodies of school children gunned down in their classrooms by a military-style semi-automatic rifle? Accounts like the one done by 60-Minutes of the effects of these weapons on the human body are needed, but seeing the damage of its high-velocity bullets to a ham hock is a world away from seeing the real thing.
The conversation continued. What about something like an Emmett Till Project that would invite parents of school shooting victims to make the same decision as Emmett’s mother and agree to publicly share photos of their children’s bodies after the attacks? Would it be legal? How could it be done? Would enough parents of the child victims agree? What would the public impact be? Would it create public demand for reinstatement of the assault weapon ban that was in place from 1994-2004? Or would it backfire, simply allowing debate over displaying photographs to take the place of debate over the need for gun control legislation?
No answers. Lots of questions. Lots of pain either way.
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In America human life is not valued.
“Similarly, graphic news coverage of the Vietnam War from the battlefields contributed to the erosion of public support for the war as the harsh reality started to turn attitudes in the crucial middle of the political spectrum.”
Actually, studies have shown that graphic news coverage of the Vietnam war had no effect on public opinion. What turned Americans against the war was the number of American casualties over ten long years and the sense that the war served no purpose. When Americans were exposed to graphic news coverage from World War II, it did not turn them against the war because they knew that it was a war for national survival.
Sad, but many of these crimes are committed by illegal guns. Country don’t have the ability to go and collect all of them. All the ban does is turn law abiding citizens into criminals.
Background checks are needed, and so are mental health evaluations, but assault rifles aren’t the problem.
I completely agree with this. These sick people who commit mass killings will turn to other means to accomplish their sick acts. People kill people. There needs to be continuous background checks and harsher punishment for illegal gun possession.
Actually according the the NY Times
authorities say “the gunman was able to obtain the weapons legally.” New Zealand and other countries did collect a lot of the guns. We used to have a ban on these military style weapons. It’s so sad what happens to families. And it goes on for the rest of their lives.
The New York Times Sunday issue had a long list of 15 mass shootings over the past few years. In all cases the comment was “Authorities said the gunman was able to obtain the weapons legally.”
It’s true disturbed people can find a way to create mayhem, but automatic military style weapons make it much easier to murder on a large scale.
We aren’t helpless. Other countries who allow people to own guns have stopped this type of carnage.
We’ve got to find a way.
I’m not “pro gun”, but the focus seems to be too much on a piece of metal vs. the moral decay we seem to have become numb to. Kids with no fathers/mothers, violent media video/music, portraying the Police as the bad guys etc.
The Washington Post also had an editorial making the case for publishing photos of gun carnage. I agree, why hide the truth? I think it was Paul McCartney with the famous line, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we’d all be vegetarians”.
There was a three day slow motion mass shooting in Chicago last weekend.slmost All with handguns. 50 shot 9 dead. Mostly black people many completely niño cent bystanders. This happens every weekend. It’s the break down of the family. Mental illness and addictions. Acceptance of all immoral behaviors and normalization of violence in video, tv. And social media. Solution bro school violence is hardened entrances. We do it for courthouses. Airports. And state capitals and government buildings. Private churches and private business have adopted hardened principles. Why not fir out teachers and children. Banning guns won’t solve the problem. Chicago is proof.