Sorry for the late arrival of the newsletter, I haven’t been feeling very well this past week. I’m been full of cold, I’m achy and there’s a brain fog which is making even typing this out a bit of a challenge. I keep losing my place and pausing for ages before I write the next bit. I was due to join the family in Gettysburg at a regional soccer tournament but wasn’t well enough to go. I’ve taken tests every couple of days to make sure it isn’t covid and have returned negative results each time.
Much of the past few days have been spent reading and watching news of the mass killing in Uvalde, Texas of 21 people including 19 children and 2 teachers by a young man who bought machine guns legally from a store in the town, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, killed his grandmother and drove to the school.
Such an awful week, feeling in most places is one of sadness and disbelief, but also anger, much of it towards the politicians that have done nothing in their time in office to bring a halt to the violence that is committed. This act could have been avoidable had the same checks and provisions that are written into law in almost every other country in the world been in place here. There is a gun epidemic in the US, so much senseless violence and killing because there are more guns here than anywhere else in the world.
So, it’s not going to be a very long newsletter, and I don’t feel much like posting my usual links and news. I can only offer perspective as someone from somewhere else who now lives here. Sure, there are things I’ll never understand and I know many people are uninterested in the view from elsewhere, but that’s all I have to share.
Stephan
Life Lessons
Guns have always had a place in American society, ever since I was a kid watching police dramas and crime shows, I could see how a gun was central to the plot. When I visited in the early 90s I saw more police than in the UK, and radio cars every few blocks, and what felt like a higher presence. Some people I met also carried guns in glove compartments or talked about having guns at home, for personal safety they said.
Thirty years later, I live here, and although you don’t see that many guns where we are, there are stories on the news every night, about shootings that have occurred. Stories about arguments breaking out that are settled with a gun, often drunkenly, arbitrarily, and ultimately. A few government buildings have security staff that asks you if you have a gun, which makes it feel strange knowing that people carry. A couple of times I’ve noticed people wearing holsters, crossing a car park, or unclipping it whilst getting into their cars. There are guns for sale at Dicks Sporting Goods, where we buy soccer cleats and shin guards, and in the countryside, as you drive through, you often pass firing ranges or gun shops. At school and university, we are trained for active-shooter situations (hide, and if you encounter one, throw things at them). About a month after I arrived in Pittsburgh, an anti-semitic white supremacist killed eleven people attending the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill as they gathered to worship. Just a few blocks from where I was working, the deadliest attack ever on the Jewish community in the US.
Although gun numbers are hard to be sure of, the thought is that there are between 390 - 450 million guns in the US, almost 20 million of those are assault rifles; those that the military use to fight wars are readily available for sale. In PA you don’t need a license and there is no waiting period if you want to buy a gun. Assault Rifles are national best-sellers and in Texas, they are easier to buy than handguns and aggressively marketed to young men, invoking games such as Call of Duty. Access to guns increases the risk of death, through suicide, and impulsive acts involving guns almost always result in tragedy. What has been added to the combustible mix is social media, where toxic masculinity, conspiracy, and misinformation thrive. This is where radicalization takes place, where angry thoughts are encouraged and hatred is condoned. Would-be killers can stream their crimes, upload manifestos of shit, and idolize other insane fuckheads.
This is a terrible situation that the country is in, 90% of people want background checks and 84% want to prevent gun sales to those who have been reported as dangerous and unstable by a mental health provider. The corruption is as plain as day, hundreds of GOP senators (and a few democrats) receive money from the NRA, funding their campaigns and keeping them in power. This is yet another issue where minority rule through the filibuster prevents real change. Senators are also assured that voter turnout is low in the US, for instance in the last election only 70% of the those eligible to vote actually registered, and of those registered voters only 61% actually filled out a ballot paper. Many people don’t think that politics affects them, but they have children at school, they work and need access to medical care, and they live in communities where guns have caused terrible loss of life. Complacency keeps these politicians in power.
Again there are no solutions to gun violence from the right, at least none that are evidence-based or would lead to a reduction in the number of guns. In Uvalde, it is clear that many of the measures that right-wing politicians have suggested were in place, that there was a critical failure to act, for instance, the armed guard in the school was easily overwhelmed by the gunman, and for reasons that are hard to comprehend, the police waited before entering the school. There were supposed good people with guns who failed to prevent a bad person from committing a terrible act.
Speaking with friends and family in the UK, they just can’t understand what is going on, it is unfathomable. This is the only country where mass murder like this happens so regularly, where school children, congregations, or supermarket shoppers are not safe from people with guns. In so many countries, more recently New Zealand, after the Christchurch mosque shootings, the Government launched a buy-back scheme for guns; legislators have been quick to act, with long-lasting effects and a positive reduction in gun-related incidents.
There’s no end to this, while the political process is hamstrung, where money buys influence, where people are paying with their lives, and while America continues to believe in guns as essential to a way of life, as a tool of conservatism, sold as a way to preserve essential freedoms.
Lost and Found
GoFundMe pages for the families of the Uvalde school shooting victims.
Fact-check on Steve Kerr’s powerful comments.
Timeline for the Uvalde massacre by Heather Cox Richardson
The New York Times is asking all 50 Republicans in the Senate for their positions as Senate Democrats move to strengthen background checks.
The first few minutes of this Stephen Colbert interview with former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Admiral James Stavridis. “You have to be 21 years of age to buy a beer…you can buy a long gun when you’re 18. We’ve got it upside down..”
PBS Learning has a resource for discussing the Uvalde massacre with students, including a link to a bilingual site for educators and ESL learners on talking with children about violence.
Everytown is the largest gun violence protection organization in the US, campaigning for legislation and registering voters on behalf of candidates who will govern with gun safety.
‘No way to prevent this,’ says only nation where this regularly happens. From The Onion.
Flags for Good are sold out of End Gun Violence flags but promising that they’ll be back in stock soon.
Thank you
I hope that you are well and enjoying a short break if you’re in the US, or a restful weekend back home. The weather is very nice, there’s a breeze when you sit out back and I have a few jobs to do when I’m feeling better, mow the lawn for one and have a tidy up the house before everyone gets home from the soccer tournament.
It has been a rough week I know, and you can see that it is hard sometimes to be here. We love it, but this isn’t right.
Take care, speak soon.