Every day I have a direct view of a sniper’s nest. It’s the University of Texas Tower, the most prominent landmark in Austin, the state’s capital.
On August 1, 1966, Marine veteran Charles Whitman murdered his wife and mother, then went shopping. He bought a rifle, a shotgun, spare magazines and ammunition, before returning home to collect more weapons and bullets. Armed to the teeth, he headed for the tower and unleashed the deadliest mass shooting in America at that time.
Fifty years later the Republican-dominated Texas legislature commemorated the massacre by enacting a “campus carry” law, permitting students to bring concealed handguns to class. The law became effective on the anniversary of the bloodbath. It was a giant middle finger to all who oppose Republicans’ nihilistic gun mania.
They don’t give a damn.
Today Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant-Governor Dan Patrick, US senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and their cabal of cosplay cowboys trooped to Uvalde, Texas, to sprinkle their “thoughts and prayers” on the shattered community. The screams of bereaved parents still hung in the air. It was a sickening spectacle.
Midland-Odessa. El Paso. Santa Fe. Sutherland Springs. These Texas towns have all been devastated by gun violence during Abbott’s tenure. Each time the same GOP pantomime is rolled out. It’s a routine so rehearsed that everyone knows it by heart:
Step one: issue hollow thoughts and prayers;
Step two: praise law enforcement and civilians as heroes;
Step three: attack those demanding action on gun safety as exploiting a tragedy;
Step four: block all reform.
Republican officials repeat this playbook nationwide after every killing spree. Buffalo, New York. Boulder, Colorado. Parkland, Florida. Las Vegas, Nevada. Orlando, Florida. San Bernardino, California. Charleston, South Carolina. Over and over.
Americans don’t want to live like this. Contrary to the common perception that the United States is a land of gun-toting vigilantes, six in 10 adults live in households without firearms. Half of all guns are owned by just 3% of the population. Polls show that Americans of all political stripes support stricter gun safety laws, including universal background checks for all gun purchases, limiting assault-style weapons and magazines, banning sales to people with histories of mental illness or domestic violence, and a national firearms registry.
But thanks to voter suppression and gerrymandering, Republican politicians are impervious to public pressure because they don’t answer to the American people. Instead they work for big donors and lobbyists. That’s who they listen to, and whose interests they represent. And no group carries more sway than the National Rifle Association.
By macabre coincidence, the NRA’s grip will be on full display in Texas this weekend as Houston hosts the association’s annual convention. The Republicans crying crocodile tears in Uvalde today will trek there to repledge their fealty. Abbott, Cruz and Cornyn are all scheduled keynote speakers. Only Cornyn has backed out.
Abbott lauds his pro-gun credentials. He declared that he was embarrassed Texas ranked second in the nation for new gun purchases, and implored Texans to pick up the pace. He boasted about implementing “constitutional carry” that allows Texans to carry their guns in public without a permit or training. He signed legislation proclaiming Texas a “sanctuary state” for the Second Amendment. He cheered the NRA’s proposal to relocate its headquarters to Texas.
No wonder the teenage killer in Uvalde was better equipped than many frontline fighters defending Ukraine.
More than 100 people die by gun violence every day in America. The epidemic is so common that it takes a spectacular incident to receive media coverage and galvanise public outrage. Attention lingers for a few days, before fading until the next explosion.
The NRA and its collaborators rely on this.
Will this time be different? Can anything stop angry men with guns from murdering innocents? Not unless voters revolt and demand action. More precisely Republican women. If they tipped the balance within their party, they could make a difference. Some have demonstrated their willingness to change their voting behaviour in recoil against their party’s increasing extremism. Republican men won’t budge. They blame everything but guns for the bloodshed. They insist that gun safety laws would not prevent gun crimes, because shooters will always find a way to access weapons. For some reason, many who make this argument reject the same logic when applied to abortion laws stopping abortions.
Apathy is likely to win out. Again. The perpetual outrage machine has no shortage of issues vying for Americans’ attention. Despite all the carnage, most people have never been touched by gun violence. So it’s out of sight, out of mind, until bullet bingo comes for them.
