bang, bang, you’re dead…
All of you will already know that I seldom praise our centre-right/far-right Tory politicians but, hand on heart, they could be worse, they could be American. Just four days after yet another mass school shooting where three pupils were killed and seven injured, US congressman, Thomas Massie, posted a yuletide photograph of himself and direct family members all posing with military-grade semi-automatic assault weapons. And just in case the photo didn’t quite have the impact he wanted, the accompanying caption read “Santa, please bring ammo.” I strongly urge you to go have a nosey at it. Nothing short of horrifying.
At the same moment sweet Tommy was posting his best wishes to the world, two high-profile vigilante trials further highlighted the polarisation and division within the country. The question it obviously raises is how on earth did the US end up here? When exactly did America become this crazy trigger-happy, shoot-first-ask-later country?
Earlier this month in Wisconsin, Kyle Rittenhouse, was found not guilty of murdering two men he shot dead during a racial justice/BLM rally. Cuddly Kyle, seventeen at the time, had armed himself with a semi-automatic rifle to ‘defend’ Kenosha during a protest that was triggered by the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Notwithstanding his social media feeds clearly showed a patriotic Proud Boy on the prowl, the self-defence claim was supported by the fact he had been chased and hit by one person with a skateboard. I kid you not, gun vs small-wheeled transportation device. In Georgia meanwhile, three men were on trial, charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery. Their defence attorney claimed that Arbery looked like he could be the culprit of recent burglaries, they confronted the sweaty jogger and he ended up dead. All three were found guilty of murder.
Back in Oxford, Michigan, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, the fifteen year old teenager accused of the school shooting, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Having been called to an urgent meeting at the school after Ethan had been seen googling ‘bullets’ they failed to mention they’d just bought him a semi-automatic handgun. WTF. In all instances the gun proved to be the downfall of all.
