Opinion> Roger Simon> The Silence Of The Sheep

	25 May 2012 Businessmen Make Lousy Presidents My experience with vulture capitalism is limited. A vulture could not make even a snack out of my capital. I don'… Read More.
	23 May 2012 Is Mitt Romney Count Dracula? In the end, it won't be about who raises the most money. It won't be about who ate a dog or kept one on the … Read More.
	18 May 2012 Poll Results Are “Massaged” Before They Are Released I promise you this is not another one of my columns about how polls suck. Point One: You already know polls suck.… Read More.

The Silence of the Sheep

There is the calm before the storm. There is the silence that is golden. And there is the quiet that is the fear to speak out.

What period do you think we are in now? What is being urged upon us by right-wingers who have been shrieking at the tops of their lungs for month after month?

The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others at a small political rally outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday was one of those terrible shocks we were just waiting for.

It had been building for weeks.

A woman in Kentucky who had protested against Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul at a debate was dragged to the ground and had her head repeatedly stomped upon. (She suffered a concussion and multiple sprains; Paul was elected to the Senate.)

A gubernatorial candidate in New York jammed his face up against a reporter and said, "I'll take you out, buddy."

And people began showing up at political rallies carrying guns.

In August 2009, outside a rally attended by President Barack Obama in Portsmouth, N.H., a guy showed up with a pistol strapped to his hip and a sign that read, "It Is Time to Water the Tree of Liberty."

Others started showing up at presidential rallies with semiautomatic rifles slung over their shoulders to match the sneers on their lips.

They got their photos in the papers and sometimes were interviewed on cable TV, but all of it was followed by the usual: All of it was followed by silence.

There was no hubbub in Congress demanding new laws keeping gun nuts farther away from candidates. There were no outcries. No angry speeches.

Turn back the pages to the Wedgwood Baptist Church in Forth Worth, Texas. Remember Wedgwood Baptist? No, of course you don't. We forget them all eventually. Columbine. Blacksburg. All fade. All are crushed by time. And the next mass murder.

In September 1999, Larry Gene Ashbrook, 47, entered the Wedgwood Baptist Church with a cigarette in his lips and two loaded handguns under his black, leather jacket. It was not illegal to carry a handgun into a church in Texas, but it was illegal to smoke in one. So the janitor asked him to put it out.

Ashbrook shot him in the head. Then he shot and killed six other people before fatally shooting himself. Among the dead were three 14-year-olds and a 17-year-old. Seven other people were shot but survived.

The arguments then were somewhat like the arguments now.

There were hypocritical demands that we must not "cheapen" the deaths by "politicizing" them. And then there were those who wanted to do something to prevent future murders.

George W. Bush, running for president, said the answer was love, not laws. "I don't know of a law — a governmental law — that will put love in people's hearts," Bush said. "There seems to be a wave of evil passing through America now ... but our hopes and our prayers have got to be that there is more love in society."

Al Gore, also running for president, said that "assault weapons" like the 9 mm Ruger and the .380 AMT semiautomatic handguns that Ashbrook used in the shootings "should be banned."

And Gore made sure that reporters had copies of the 1997 law that Bush had signed as Texas governor barring the prosecution of people who brought guns to churches or synagogues unless the houses of worship had posted notices alerting people that guns were not wanted.

"Has it come to this?" Gore asked. "Are we not even safe in church anymore?"

It has come to this. We are not safe in church anymore. Or outside supermarkets. Not as long as our lawmakers are too cowardly to pass real gun laws.

In 2000, Gore lost the presidency. True, if he had won Florida, he would have become president, but if he had won West Virginia, Tennessee or Arkansas — any of which was possible — he wouldn't have needed Florida. And West Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas are where the gun lobby ran big ad campaigns against him.

By 2003, with Howard Dean now chair of the party, the Democrats officially fled from gun control. Democrats should stick to issues like "jobs, health care and education" and not get trapped into talking about things like "guns, God, gays, abortion and all this controversial stuff that we're not going to come to an agreement on," Dean said.

So today Sarah Palin can slap cross hairs on the congressional districts of her political enemies and say, "Don't retreat, Instead — RELOAD," and it barely causes a stir.

And then, after the shootings in Tucson, Palin takes down the cross hairs and releases her toadies to say they were merely "surveyor's symbols," and we are supposed to believe that.

Gabrielle Giffords was targeted by those cross hairs, she complained about it, and now she is fighting for her life.

Shut up! screams the right. There is no connection! None! And we must have silence about gun control because only silence honors the dead!

And makes sure that nothing ever changes.

To find out more about Roger Simon, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Comments

3 Comments | Post Comment

Yes, lets outlaw guns based on the actions of a few (very very few) individuals who choose to abuse those privileges.

How many tens of thousands die every year in car accidents? We should enforce stricter automobile laws. Licensing simply isn't enough, we need to ban these terrible killers from the roads. Besides, we can redirect the money people spend on their own vehicles to help improve public transportation, so people wont even need those cars. But no, this is part of the vast car lobby conspiracy. Not only will the government NOT make it harder to buy cars, they actually GAVE MONEY to the car companies when they came to Washington with their hands held out and a sad story about the mean old Japanese/er.. no, it was the recession this time.

Alcohol is a big problem (a part of all those car accident deaths too). We need stricter alcohol laws. Restricting the sale of alcohol to those over 21, drunk driving, public intoxication, these are weakling laws put in place by a government too scared to stand up to the vastly powerful alcohol lobby. Alcohol should only be sold to licensed individuals in state-run points of sale with prior written approval from the local sherrif (if not simply banned outright). Oh, but I know what you're saying, we could never ban alcohol outright (they tried it before), so instead, lets regulate the manufacturer of glass bottles and aluminum cans, and those little red Solo(tm) cups. People can't get drunk if they have nothing to store their alcohol in or drink it out of.

What about drug abuse? Not illegal drugs (though all those laws aren't having much affect either), I'm talking abuse of prescription drugs. How is it people like Rush Limbaugh, Michael Jackson, Lindsay Lohan can get prescriptions for enough drugs to keep a thoroughbred stable on cloud 9? Clearly, the current prescription system managed by educated and licensed doctors and pharmacists doesn't go far enough. The government needs to step in a better regulate these drugs. Oh, but government would never stand-up to Big Pharma. In fact, they'll pass laws that make it illegal for Medicare to even negotiate prescription drug prices. How many people ruin their lives or kill themselves or someone else while under the influence of supposedly regulated prescription drugs?

Well, I guess when you don't own or use a gun, its quite easy to propose we make them harder to get (and site plenty of examples of why all guns are bad). Lets ignore the fact that millions of law abiding gun owners in the nation have never once used a gun to commit a crime (I'd suggest a good percentage of gun crime occurs with illegally obtained firearms, not counting things like poaching or hunting off season). There's a reason we don't have stricter gun, alcohol, automobile, and drug laws in this nation, and thats because the people (of, by and for which government exists, to paraphrase Lincoln) have spoken with their votes both directly on referendums and for the politicians currently in power. To suggest that we need stricter laws suggests that you know more than the people. Well, sad to say, you still only get one vote like the rest of us, you have to live with the consequences of the decisions we the people make on election day.

Comment: #1
Posted by: Nathan H.
Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:24 PM

Report this post

So we need more gun laws ?? I thought that premeditated murder and attempted murder were against the law - but that did not stop that crazed killer in Tucson - only law obiding citizens obey the law - criminals, predators and crazed lunatics do not - they have the guns !! are law obiding citizens to be helpless victims and the only ones without guns ?? Thanks a lot !! Yes, make it harder for potential killers to get guns.

As far as targets on maps, the DLC used that in 2004, Obama said to bring a gun to a knife fight and called Conservatives "the enemy" - no Democrat yet has admitted to this.

Comment: #2
Posted by: MA Tom
Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:11 AM

Report this post

I have never understood the arguments of those who are against gun control. Not gun elimination, just gun control. I hear two arguments; 1) the "slippery slope" argument, which states that any gun control, no matter how reasonable, will lead to the loss of ALL gun rights or 2) the "lack of protection" argument, which states that we need our guns to protect ourselves from crazy criminals.
As to slippery slope, I come from a family of hunters (I grew up in rural PA) and we all use guns responsibly. I see no threat to me, or my family, if there are stricter laws around how to acquire and/or sell semiautomatic or automatic weapons. I do think that if I were to move to the city, I would feel a lot safer if the city could restrict access to those kinds of weapons. Not that some people wouldn't figure out how to get around the laws (some people still buy crack, even though it is illegal), but there would be far fewer weapons on the street to endanger me. I'm in favor of anything that makes life tougher for criminals or people out to shoot other people. If it means I'll have to go through a few extra steps to get my own guns, I'm willing to sacrifice the time to save someone's life. Are you?
As to the "lack of protection" argument, how often do you find yourself in a life and death situation, when you happen to have your gun with you and can shoot that "bad guy" without accidentally shooting an innocent bystander? How many freedom loving gun owners actually carry their guns with them, do you think? I know I don't. Do you really want lots of armed law abiding people running around, shooting at people..because, perhaps they mistake a car backfiring for another shooter? I see those pictures of the Arabs in the middle east firing their guns in the air and shooting at targets and I think they look very un-American. Do we really want to look like them?
Finally, do you honestly believe it is "we the people" who don't want gun control? Every poll there is demonstrates that the majority of Americans, liberal and conservative alike, are in favor of some form of gun control. It is just that the NRA is so powerful, and spends so much money that politicians are afraid to do anything. Most Americans are reasonable, rational people. Most Americans think it is wrong for crazy people and criminals to have easy LEGAL access to guns. Most Americans don't want to hear about Gabbi Gifford and little girls like Christina getting shot. We want our people to be safe and sane. We want GUN CONTROL.

Comment: #3
Posted by: C. Smith
Wed Jan 12, 2011 1:29 PM

Report this post

Already have an account? Log in.