With a series of mass shootings in Dayton, El Paso and Midland and Odessa, Texas, calls for “sensible” gun legislation are making the rounds again. The familiar pattern of “thoughts and prayers,” followed by calls for stricter gun laws, followed by calls blaming mental health instead of guns, followed by no action in Congress is repeating as usual.
At least with repetition the toothless ranting against unspecified “evil” and empty promises are getting easier to spot. Sure, more and better mental health care in the United States would be a good thing, but this country doesn’t have a monopoly on mental health problems. So why do we seem to have a monopoly on near-daily mass shootings? (Not to mention just regular ol’ gun violence that isn’t of the mass shooting variety.)
I sure hope the imploding NRA leadership combined with the strong post-Parkland student gun control movement bring some positive change. In his true autocratic style, President Trump is of course vilifying mentally ill people and suggesting a return to large asylums — whatever it takes to keep a country that has more guns than people awash in even more guns and blood. (By the way, if you supported me on Patreon, you would have seen early sketches and audio for this animation.)