Whom Shall We Blame?

Since the finger-pointing is in full effect, here's why I think this issue is a teensy bit complicated.

So back in 1996 then-nobody Barack Obama urged a statewide ban on assault weapons in Illinois. Then, in 2004 while debating Alan Keyes he argued President Bush erred to not renew the assault weapons ban. Then in 2008 while running for President he suggested that reinstating the assault weapons ban was extremely important.
Then he got elected. And when actually could reinstate the assault weapons ban...he deferred. I don't care whether you are pro-ban or anti-ban. The man spent 13 years arguing for an assault weapons ban, then when capable of enacting it...he punted. Oh and he also started shipping assault weapons to Mexico.

Meanwhile, the NRA, while seemingly motivated by 2nd Amendment protectionism, occasionally makes some tactical errors. In April they supported a bill that would repeal the need for background checks for individuals wanting to buy a firearm. That was April 2012. Two months later: Aurora movie theater shooting. And back in 2011, the NRA successfully defeated a measure in Connecticut that would have banned high-capacity magazines like the one used in last Friday's shooting.

I could go around and around the room, pointing fingers at everyone. But eventually, once I went around the room long enough...I'd be pointing at you.
We live in a violent, violent culture. The highest-selling video game of all time, Call of Duty: Black Ops, is a celebration of the art of killing. Of the top ten highest grossing games of all time, three are military shooters, and one is "Grand Theft Auto 4" which is a game in which breaking the law is the purpose. Our most popular sport is a bloody, injury-prone, concussion-inducing grudge match so violent that most humans can only play it for 5 or less years. Many athletes are driven literally insane by it. Our national interest in regulating weapons is at an all-time low. Currently popular television shows include Dexter, where the protagonist is a serial killer; Breaking Bad, a show about drug dealing; Sons of Anarchy, a show about a lawless group of motorcyclists, fifty million "crime dramas" that typically have a murder in the first two minutes of the show, and a bevy of other violence-centric programming.
The top 10 movies for 2011 included The Avengers, where superheroes battle aliens and most of New York City is destroyed; The Dark Knight Rises, where once again most of New York is destroyed; The Hunger Games, where children ages 12-18 are forced to murder each other, and Skyfall, where James Bond kills no less than 20 people, the antagonist is stabbed in the back with a knife, and a man is eaten alive by a large lizard.
Look. Violence is part of American culture. It just is. We grow up shooting Nerf guns at each other. We play laser tag. We play paintball. We quote movies like Dirty Harry (the scene before he shoots the bad guy at point blank range, obviously) or Scarface (the scene where he snorts a lethal dose of Coke and then goes on a wild shooting rampage and is violently killed, obviously).

The question is: do you try to legislate around this culture? Do you try to change it? People point to the efficacy of gun laws in Australia (but we are not Australians). People point to the low rate of gun murder in the EU and their gun bans (but we are not the French). America is different. Just ask plucky ex-Brit Andrew Sullivan, who says:

Gun violence is one of those things that an immigrant is first amazed by in America. The second thing a non-American is shocked by is the sheer passion of those who own and use guns in this country.

I've come to accept that I am going to witness a debate I find almost absurd in a mind shaped first of all by British culture. I understand the constitutional resonance of an armed citizenry vis-vis its potentially abusive government. And I can also see why this makes America different.

 That's just it: we are Americans. We are violent. Take away the guns and we are still violent Americans. Change us into less violent creatures? That's much harder. Systemic change always is. 

So really there's three options: 1) forcible removal of what the majority of Americans see as an explicit freedom, 2) gradual, difficult cultural change into a more peaceful society, or 3) acknowledg that in America's violent, free culture there will occasionally be psychopaths who get their hands on weapons and perpetrate violent acts and that we as a society are choosing to accept those occasional tragic deaths in exchange for what we consider sacred.


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