OpEds | The Silence Post Facto
Mike Ingles
In his great American novel, “Slaughterhouse-five” Kurt Vonnegut said this about a massacre: Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the bird’s say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet.”
There is nothing else to say about such a tragedy. But that won’t stop television reporters and bloggers from analyzing every scrap of evidence, interviewing every quack psychologist, every mourning mother.
I don’t want to dwell on the suffering parents, on the sinless children…I want to talk about us.
.
There have been 2.5 million Glock 9mm semi-automatic handguns manufactured. There are 310 million of us. If 1% of our population has worms in their brains that urges them to take revenge on someone or something, then that’s over 3 million people. Do the math: 2.5 million x 3 million = Poo-tee-weet.
.
We, as a society, have decided that we will take our chances with people who have worms in their brains, because, 220 years ago, men who hunted squirrel for supper, wrote down these words: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
.
The world was quite a different place 220-years-ago. In cities like New York and Philadelphia, workers with shovels cleaned horse-shit from city streets, people heated homes with firewood and skinned rabbits to make clothing. But still, we are governed by these same antiquated laws. Why? Because these men, it is believed, were somehow blessed by God to issue such proclamations that have sufficed all these many years to allow us protection of our liberties. Well—yes, that. That, and an arsenal of nuclear weapons also helps to keep the British at bay. But to be fair to the framers, they had no conception of nuclear weapons, or warships nearly a mile-long or biological weapons. They had a real fear of Britain though. And, they saw, first hand, what a revolution could do. So, they naturally felt that, because they needed guns for hunting anyway, why not make sure that this right-to-bear-arms was guaranteed. That way, if Paul Revere had to take out his horse again—our militia would be ready. Right.
.
Two-hundred-twenty-years later, even if you have your own personal arsenal tucked away in the closet, full of automatic weapons—you don’t have a snowballs chance in hell of repelling an invasion from a foreign government or stopping a nuclear weapon or a terrorists with biological weapons.
.
One-hundred-twenty-years ago, men in the West carried six-shooters strapped on their belts. They did so for protection, But after just a few years, we, society, decided to outlaw that practice—to save lives.
.
There’s a lot of money in guns. Especially, automatic weapons and semi-automatic weapons. The profit margins are huge. To protect their interest, gun manufactures formed the NRA (National Rifle Association), sounds innocent enough—who could be against a rifle, after all, gotta kill some rabbits and squirrels. Had they called their association—the National Automatic Weapons League For People With Worms in Their Brains, they probably wouldn’t have much success? Who knows?
.
The NRA is the most powerful lobbying group in congress. They have convinced, otherwise intelligent, people that guns are needed for protection—when the empirical evidence is overwhelming, that just like in the Old West, that more of us (and our children) will die from having access to these weapons than if they were outlawed (no pun intended).
.
You and I have little to say about the matter. Unless you are willing to do something radical. For instance, if we started an Internet Campaign that said, in effect, any congressperson taking money from the NRA and its affiliates will cause us to vote them out of office. That might get their (politicians) attention. We don’t need the NRA to channel automatic weapons to criminals and gun-enthusiasts. There is simply no real need for average folk to have such weapons of mass destruction. The Second Amendment has stood by itself for a longtime and doesn’t need the help of paid politicians to advance our security.
.
Or, we can do nothing—until the next time kids are gunned down in their classrooms. Then, the birds will have the last say—in the stillness they will say, Poo-tee-wee.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Ingles is a freelance writer living in Ohio. He has a degree in American Literature from Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio.
duckrun2@aol.com
Mike Ingles is a freelance writer living in Ohio. He has a degree in American Literature from Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio.
duckrun2@aol.com