My Mondays all start the same way:
- My alarm goes off at 5a ET
- I reach and grasp across my nightstand, trying to find the phone. My room is pitch black; I usually knock it to the floor. Looking for it is really what wakes me up.
- Squinting into my phone as I check the first 3 or so messages to make sure nothing blew up overnight.
On October 2nd, something had blown up overnight. When I first read the NYT news notification, I’m not sure I fully processed it; it arrived at 4:43a, and read “At least 20 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in the Las Vegas shooting. The police said one suspect was dead.”
I was in the shower by 5:05a. New week. New mass shooting. America. I remember thinking in the shower that it wouldn’t be long before Fox would be yelling the name of a young foreign man. They’d call him a terrorist. ISIS would claim responsibility. The President would probably say something unpresidential.
At 6:25 am I was walking through the airport, and the story was on every screen not showing flight information. The casualty count was well-above the 20 originally reported; injuries were in the hundreds. I remember pausing to search the faces of the people in the crowd as CNN looped video of people fleeing the concert site. A lot of them showed the pure terror one would expect in a war zone; others just walked briskly, glancing back occasionally, as though avoiding a bar fight.
No news of the suspect yet, other than he was dead. A press announcement by a senior law enforcement official said he felt it was the worst mass shooting in US history. I didn’t catch what number held that sad distinction. Another NYT alert at 6:45a solved that for me right before boarding: “Above 50.”
I remember tearing up a bit as the plane took off. It all seemed flagrantly senseless, and its randomness made me feel vulnerable, as though I too could die at any moment, through no fault of my own. I considered the odds of my plane suddenly failing, and falling, out of the sky.
I remember calming, and then thinking “well at least now they’ll have to do something about guns.” High body count, country concert, Vegas. It was an attack on “real” America this time. As it emerged that the shooter had no obvious terrorist leanings, and enough firepower for several well-armed militias, the well-worn excuses against gun control seemed to fade. I – and the talking heads on TV – became more and more convinced that this was a watershed moment.
I started to imagine what the law would be called. Maybe “Amendment 58” or “The Vegas Law.” It would be a fitting tribute to the memories of the murdered. My coworkers nodded “maybe now” right along with me, and gun control was all any of us could talk about.
As you now know, we were all wrong. Absolutely nothing happened. There was no legislation passed, no collective draw on conscience. There were thoughts and prayers all over the place, but that was about it. I watched all the news I could – CNN, ABC, Fox. Democrats spoke with an air of certainty and urgency; Republicans seemed cautious and reflective; pundits teared up. I waited for a comment from the NRA.
None came on the first day. Or the second. Gun rights groups only started to pop up when it broke that Senators were considering gun-control actions. The response from the lobby was some warning to Republicans considering stricter controls: “Hold fast, or be challenged come election season.”
And the Republicans fell in-line. Some, like Chris Collins (R – NY) said that action on controls was unnecessary. “We are not going to knee jerk react to every situation,” which would be all well and good if we’d previously gotten a reaction to ANY situation at all.
Others, who initially showed support for stiffened controls on bump fire stocks suddenly disappeared or – like Paul Ryan – appeared to support a watered-down version pushing regulations from the ATF but no legislation. The NRA supported those measures, suggesting they were likely essentially meaningless in efforts to curb violence. To avoid any confusion they opposed legislation banning bump stocks about a week later.
All the while, Republican Senators and Congress members continued to wish, hope, and pray for the victims and their families, lighting matches to warm up in the arctic. While the country demanded action, the right and Fox News trotted out their tired-but-handy statements: “this isn’t the time to politicize this tragedy,” “let’s take the time to acknowledge the pain of the victims and their families,” completely ignoring that they hadn’t followed this guidance in the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. Sean Hannity suggested that maybe MORE guns and gun wielders were the solution.
As I’ve wondered how any of this is possible, I hear that it’s all tied to the NRA. Wayne LaPierre and his sentinels lurk in the shadows of our politics, I’m told, pulling strings to a degree we can’t fathom. The reversal of the assault weapons ban, Stand Your Ground, Right to Carry, and hundreds of other pieces of legislation around the country all stand proof of the NRAs all-consuming power.
When politicians speak out against them, they are challenged in primaries, shouted down at town-halls, and removed from valuable campaign contributions. Qualified candidates for posts are actively opposed for simply voicing common-sense curbs on ever-expanding weapons-use rights. MarketWatch did a whole thing (which I enjoyed) on people having to choose between the USA and the NRA, positioning the two almost as equal options.
But now I’m growing skeptical. “It’s the Lobbyists” seems a particularly unsatisfactory response, especially after the gravity of Vegas. Special interests pushing their legislative agenda certainly isn’t “unfathomable,” and seems quite standard, actually. John Grisham has several books on the subject. I took a glance at a few of the NRA’s past tax filings…they made $337M in 2015. Not insignificant, but not particularly all-powerful, either. $337M wouldn’t break the Fortune 1000…not by a long-shot. Quest Nutrition made more from protein bars.
According to several sources, Wayne LaPierre makes about $1M a year. Again, not insignificant, but easily at par with or below the income levels of bankers, consultants, fund managers, industry executives, models, athletes…quite a few people who don’t also hold enormous political influence, our interpretation of parts of the Constitution, and – relatedly – the lives of millions of American citizens. He isn’t a Koch brother, he isn’t a Zuckerberg wife, and I’m not particularly impressed.
So no, I’m not really buying the “lobbyists are to blame” angle. The way I see it, the NRA is only part of the problem. Yes, they’re greedy, manipulative, and profit-centered to a degree bordering on wickedness. That is a set of issues and characteristics to be confronted and challenged and hopefully, one day remedied. But they’re also doing what Adam Smith said fundamentally we’re all always doing, which is to act in their own self-interest and maximize their own profits, meager though they might be.
No, my issue is more and more with the politicians under the NRA’s thumbs. The NRA might push an agenda, you’d expect any interest group to. It’s the Senators that ultimately have to vote. When Diane Feinstein introduced control legislation, it was Paul Ryan that helped kill it. It’s not like the NRA mailed him a cheque right that second. It was a choice he made.
And when Marion Hammer, an NRA leader out of Florida, rallied the voter base against Charles McBurney, a Republican state rep, for opposing a particularly liberal reading of Stand Your Ground, it was Governor Rick Scott who opted to cave to voter pressure and not appoint McBurney to the state bench, though he was qualified. Governor Rick Scott, not the NRA.
Michael Hiltzik, in the LA Times, wrote a great piece giving several examples of Republican leaders sending their thoughts and prayers, followed closely by how much money they had received from the NRA as they opted to take no action on gun control, and to instead stand in the way of any potential action taken. The support totals ranged from over $5M (Sen. Tillias, North Carolina) to $122K (Sen. Heller, Nevada). $122K, the going rate for souls these days, apparently.
Paul Ryan received $5950 from the NRA for the 2016 cycle. You can’t even buy a decent used Accord for that. And for that and similar amounts all down the red side of congress, all efforts to enact some common-sense controls have been shot down, even when polls show that 90% of Americans support basic sense like background checks.
Politicians take campaign contributions to contest elections. They contest elections to win them, and to attain or stay in power. What they do with that power is pretty basic, and repeated by millions of politicians the world over. They cast votes, pass laws, and get preferred seating at restaurants. They read speeches and give lectures and receive honorary degrees. They stand on soapboxes and declare what is good and what is bad for their republics, and assume the monopoly on patriotism.
For the US’ Republicans, this is particularly the case, and red-tinged politicians love to wax lyrical on what it means to be American. Usually something about tax cuts and military expansion and Obama being Kenyan.
It is all very ordinary: The politician’s intentions, the special interests making contributions in support of those intentions for something in return, the politicians following through. I’m not stunned that the NRA tries to buy politicians. I’m stunned at how cheaply these politicians can apparently be bought, and the cost in hundreds of lives, loves, and families year after year. I’m confused as to how they make that trade-off, though less confused as to who is to blame.
Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;” I agree. Deceitful because for $5,950 a tongue can be forked to both condemn a kneeling protester’s “unpatriotic behavior” toward a symbol of the republic and champion a bad interpretation of aged paperwork and enable the slaughter of citizens and officers of that same republic. Desperately wicked for demonstrating that staying in power is more sacred than a fellow citizen staying alive. My heart breaks for the sheer hypocrisy.
Not of the NRA – they’re perhaps the most honest party concerned – but of the politicians. “Pro-life” politicians who trade lives for the price of a nice sandwich. $5950 vs. 465 mass shooting deaths since the beginning of 2016, Paul Ryan. $12.50 a head.
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.
See also: The Myth of NRA Power