Help This Be the Moment When Real Change Begins

Ben Wheeler

I know I usually post poetry on Sundays but I’m diverting from the norm because of the importance of this issue.

This is another post about guns. I won’t be referencing my kids like I usually do, though, and insisting that they deserve to be safe and live long lives, etc. Instead I want to share a compelling video from the parents of six-year-old Ben Wheeler, one of the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy. Francine Wheeler delivered the weekly White House Address yesterday instead of President Obama; her husband David, who did not speak but at one point could be heard sobbing, was at her side:

First of all, anyone who watches this video, truly watches and listens and feels this mother’s pain and doesn’t want to curl up on the floor afterwards and sob is either inhuman, irrational or both.

Second, I don’t understand how adults – actual grownups with jobs and homes and cars and loved ones – can post comments at YouTube and other pages where the video’s been shared that ridicule this woman, minimize and trivialize and politicize what she’s saying and try to marginalize her.

People are also insisting that Obama the Tyrant wants to TAKE OUR GUNS AWAY. (I don’t know why so many of these people type in all caps as if shouting something makes it true.) He doesn’t want to take our guns away. He wants to do something about the facts that about two-thirds of all murders in the United States over the past decade were carried out with firearms, representing around 12,000 people per year, and that there have been 3,300 gun deaths since Newtown.

And as I told a gun nut in Facebook the other day who was attacking me for supporting gun control, whatever firearms I’d be able to amass between now and when THE SH*T HITS THE FAN wouldn’t be sufficient against the might and muscle of the federal government anyway:

I see no need to protect myself against a tyrannical government. I'm pretty sure the government’s tanks, bazookas, nuclear weapons, missiles, submarines, etc. already trump any old Glock or .38 I might snag. People who think they need a weapon to protect themselves from the black helicopter threat belong in the woods with their beer, their firearms and their loser friends who wear tin foil hats and insist that the moon landing was faked.

I ended up blocking the guy because he was so caustic but before I did, I was able to type a few other points that he chose to ignore:

• I'm not up to arguing/debating with someone who isn't able to consider views other than his own. I have weighed the need to preserve the Second Amendment with the need to limit access to high-capacity magazines, require background checks, etc. As the parent of four children, I want to know that I did everything I could to ensure that when they go to school in the morning, they come home in the afternoon. This includes advocating for common sense gun control. Sorry if that's threatening or irritating to you.

• For every instance in which a gun in the home was shot in self-defense, there were seven criminal assaults or homicides, four accidental shootings, and 11 attempted or successful suicides.

• Children age 5 to 14 living in states with high rates of gun ownership and weak gun laws were more likely to die in homicides, suicides or accidental shootings in their home, according to a 2002 study.

• In homes where a gun was kept, there was a 2.7 times greater risk of a homicide taking place compared to homes without guns.

I won’t share what he wrote because you don’t need to read about what a hypocrite I am, how small my testicles are or any of the other insults he posted. I finally said, “I’m done. Find someone else to harass. You're never going to change my mind with your bombastic pablum and I'm not going to change yours with facts. I'm going to feed my kids now. Thank goodness I still can.”

Why do so many Second Amendment cheerleaders have to be so nasty? Do they really think they’ll change minds through intimidation, ignorance, idiocy and insensitivity?

Speaking of idiocy, a radio personality in Minnesota named Bob Davis said the following during the “Davis & Emmer Show” last Friday:

I have something I want to say to the victims of Newtown or any other shooting, I don’t care if it’s here in Minneapolis or any place else. Just because a bad thing happened to you doesn’t mean that you get to put a king in charge of my life. I’m sorry that you suffered a tragedy, but you know what? Deal with it, and don’t force me to lose my liberty, which is a greater tragedy than your loss. I’m sick and tired of seeing these victims trotted out, given rides on Air Force One, hauled into the Senate well, and everyone is…terrified of these victims. I would stand in front of them and tell them, ‘Go to hell.’

To me this is beyond obnoxious. I respect this twit's right to free speech but think he revealed what a worthless piece of excrement he is. (Call 651-989-5855 or 952-417-3000 or send a message to bob@twincitiesnewstalk.com if you agree.) What makes it even worse is that although 74 percent of NRA members support requiring criminal background checks of anyone purchasing a gun, this guy is not an anomaly. Most of the pro-gun folks whose comments I’ve read online are equally callous and obtuse.

The Wheeler Family 

This is not my last gun-related post. Fortunately a friend of mine who’s a pistol-packing, card-carrying NRA member has agreed to answer my questions about guns without becoming incensed and abusive. (I’ve written about her before – see “My frustrating, heat-packing, McDonald's-loving, stupidity-hating diva friend,” October 14, 2011 – and am glad that for whatever reason, we’re able to hold diametrically opposed opinions and still like and respect each other.) I intend to ask her why we shouldn’t ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines; why lots of folks believe protecting Second Amendment rights is more important than doing whatever we can to reduce gun violence; why anyone buys into the myth that carrying concealed weapons decreases crime and prevents tragedies like Aurora, Tucson, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and Columbine; and what she would say if she found herself alone in a room with Francine and David Wheeler.

Sources: White House, Forbes, NPR, StateofEnlightenment.com, Joyce Foundation.