By Stephen Macaulay
On the stage in Uvalde is a group of almost entirely older men, including Texas governor Greg Abbott, lieutenant governor Dan Patrick and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Beto O’Rourke stands up from the audience and calls them out for doing nothing to protect innocent lives.
O’Rourke is criticized for “politicizing” the situation.
- Aren’t many of those people on stage politicians? What are they doing if not acting in their roles as elected politicians? How is their simply being there not a political act?
- Isn’t the whole issue related to gun laws political? Aren’t politicians the ones who are making decisions about what they will or won’t do when it comes to legislating, which is a political act?
The hypocrisy is palpable. And the taste is disgusting.
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In my neighborhood there is a woman’s health clinic.
There is abortion counseling performed there.
That is clear because there are regularly protestors outside carrying signs that generally read “Abortion Is Murder” or something along those lines.
Many of these protestors are organized by churches.
How many church groups and protestors are going to be outside the NRA convention Saturday with signs that read “Killing Children Is Murder”?
How is it that there is temporary hand-wringing about mass shootings and little organized action from those who are so keen on protecting the unborn?
What about protecting the born?
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“Drug therapy in colonial and revolutionary America,” a paper cited by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, notes that “Therapy in the 17th and 18th centuries remained largely symptomatic rather than curative. Treatment included such "depletion" measures as purging, sweating, bleeding, blistering and vomiting. Purgatives, emetics, opium, cinchona bark, camphor, potassium nitrate and mercury were among the most widely used drugs.”
Clearly, things have changed since then.
Here’s something to consider: Do those “originalist” members of the Supreme Court go in for “purging, sweating, bleeding, blistering and vomiting” when they’re sick?
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Here’s something that never gets talked about by “originalist” members of the Supreme Court or any other individuals or bodies that are keen on people having weapons: In circa 1800 the population of people in the U.S. was approximately 5 million people.
The population of grizzly bears was 50,000.
Yes, gun ownership was probably relevant back then.
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From the website of the trade association, National Shooting Sports Foundation on the AR-15, which it terms an “America’s Rifle”:
“And, they are a lot of fun to shoot!”
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In 2020 there were 52.9-million Americans with a mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH).
The NIH has it that of the 52.9-million U.S. adults with AMI, or Any Mental Illness, in 2020, only 46.2% received mental health services in the past year.
When did it become an issue of or choosing between gun legislation and mental health care?
Can’t the U.S. do both?