Things that no longer make sense
Things that no longer make sense
Decision makers in the United States continue to perpetuate a cycle of horror and despair caused by gun violence
Nineteen children and three adults were destroyed at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday, adding to a toll of unspeakable carnage inflicted by a dramatic rise in gun violence that has overcome the United States. They call the perpetrators “active shooters”. Most of them use high powered automatic assault rifles that are legal in the country. Twenty-seven of them have attacked US schools in 2022, contributing to the more-than-two hundred mass shootings committed this year alone.
Twenty years ago, We all watched ‘Bowling for Columbine’ with America and agreed with them that they had a gun problem. Somewhere just before the end of Bill Clinton’s assault rifle ban in 2004, at the crossroads of Fukuyama’s “End of History”, the “Coalition of the Willing” opened up a legacy of illegal war in Western Asia, things in the US began to change. Virginia Tech, Fort Hood and Aurora saw a rise in intensity, and by 2012, the Sandy Hook shootings changed everything.
Twenty-six small children were tragically gunned down along with their teachers in a school by an angry young man with an AR style weapon in Connecticut. if there ever was to be sweeping change it was at this moment. Yet somehow, through all the inconceivable horror and the collective sadness, amongst all the calls for action and the wide national support, the thing that stood out the most was the paralysis of US decision-makers to do anything about it.
In the world’s most powerful country, there was a palpable reticence to enact significant gun control measures, and what seemed like a clear lack of intensity. Barack Obama couldn’t get his assault rifle ban through, he couldn’t even pass restrictions on high capacity magazines. The President who promised “hope” and “change”, ended up doing most of it from drone cameras high up over the Levant, and became another President that couldn’t impose his leadership where it counted: helping his people suffering at home. In the shadow of his inaction, compounded under the divisive Presidency of Donald Trump, what came after, in such quick succession, defied belief: Las Vegas Shooting (60 dead, 867 injured), Pulse Nightclub (49 dead, 58 Injured), Parkland (17 dead, 17 injured) and Sutherland Springs (26 dead, 22 injured).
Sometimes, the politicians don’t talk about the politics. After Sandy Hook, Bill Scher wrote of some of the real reasons Obama did not attempt to pursue a robust gun control mandate in 2008 and again in 2012: “He probably would have lost critical swing states like Ohio, Iowa and Colorado”. The mob rule of the vocal minority has an unbearable influence on political outcomes domestically the US, such is the nature of the broken political machinery and the people that operate it in Washington — the same groups who spread deadly weapons at home, profit from selling them in wars abroad.
President Dwight Eisenhower once prophetically warned against the military industrial complex, and the immense pressure it put on democratic governments to weaponize the world - he warned us to avoid an unending arms race dictated by the weapons industry. His words were lost in the escalation of the Cold War, and are barely recalled today with the changing nature of engagement we see currently. Throughout the entire time since WWII , from the time of Eisenhower to the present day, the United States has been the biggest arms dealer on the planet, and the effect of this reality on the psyche of the nation has been completely understated.
Shimon Arad wrote in ‘War on the Rocks’, “How can Biden reconcile the apparent contradiction between promoting democracy and human rights on the one hand, and the sale of advanced weapon systems to countries that undermine these values on the other?”. How can Joe Biden, or anyone else influenced by the military industrial complex in Washington, reconcile with their role in the deep cultural influences of the military industrial complex on assault-rifle absolutism in the USA?
A few weeks ago, President Biden separated a multi-billion dollar weapons package for Ukraine ($33bl) from a vital Covid funding package ($11bl), explaining that “such an addition would slow down action on the urgently needed Ukrainian aid”, out of concern it would not pass through the house with the Covid aid attached. Five days later, the Buffalo shootings occurred, perpetrated by a young racist ethno-nationalist with access to a heavy assault weapon. No Covid relief, a disappointing response to baby formula shortages, the cost of living soars, while election promises sit on the backburner for the mid-terms -- the only thing that is certain seems to be the unchecked increase of gun violence in America.
A country that has barely-existent safety nets for its people, with some of the largest wealth gaps since the Pharaohs, has 390 million guns in circulation through its population. As Biden’s popularity continues to fall, he has not yet honoured wildly popular election promises; publicly supported executive orders regarding debt cancellation, much needed infrastructure and drug pricing. Following this disappointing trend, and his open support for the weapons industry, he probably won’t sign any meaningful gun reform either.
Since the end of WWII, American ideas have always been taken for granted, for a long time they have fed much of the world its dreams. In Australia, for years we have aimlessly enjoyed them. While we slept adjacent to the American dream, we floated along for decades out beyond what was physical unique societal violence, we may have to review this
We helped in all the wars: Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East, we watched all the Hollywood films and the Netflix, but now, with the daily shootings in a country that may be a couple of years away from a Ron DeSantis Presidency, while we sit in a new and exciting geopolitical reality at the base of Asia, can we afford to feel guilty by association? We do not have mass gun violence in this country because we still have the proponents of a good society, and because we made tough decisions to remove the weapons that could threaten that status-quo. Our society exhibits profoundly different traits to our troubled ally, we saw that in our recent election results, we see that in our daily life.
The US has not yet realised, as it tries to communicate its dwindling hegemony on the nations of the world -- many global partners cannot reconcile with this cultural anomaly: the fact that there have been twenty-seven school shootings in the country this year. When the nations of the world negotiate with the waning American giant, they now see a government that can no longer care for its people, run by politicians working in concert with those who destroy the fabric of their society for selfish gains.
Now the world sees America knowing that the mindless shootings will probably never stop, the political polarisation, inequality and mass incarcerations will only rise, and so will the social division. As the most powerful nation in the world looks hopeless to end this carnage, and its people have been suffering for so long in an endless cycle of sorrow and fear related directly to gun violence, we start to realise that many Americans don’t believe in America as some of us might still like to imagine. That perhaps we can no longer set our watch to the USA.