Commentary | One of America’s oldest and best known newspapers, The NY Daily News, joined the fray and launched an online petition drive to ban assault weapons and institute comprehensive gun control. The advertisement promoting the petition includes a recent front page of the paper with a full color photograph of the United States Capital Building dripping with blood and the headline “Blood On Your Hands.” Instead of examining the issues and proposing realistic solutions, the News just looked for a soft target and chose the Congress and anyone who advocates for the Second Amendment. It is easier to blame the NRA.
The Daily News published hundreds of comments that completely ignore rational thinking and endlessly scream the NRA is to blame for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings that left 20 children and 6 teachers dead. Blame has been the endless theme of most of the conversation since the murders in Newtown, Connecticut last Friday. Legal Gun owners and their advocates are 100% responsible for a mentally ill young man committing mass murder. It is easier to blame the NRA.
Many saner observers have commented that they do understand the feeling of powerlessness that many Americans are feeling in response to this terrible tragedy. It is much easier play the blame game than it is to talk about the abysmal mental health care in America or consider the possibility that Adam Lanza was probably a very angry, disturbed young man. But why consider the reasons for his meltdown. It is easier to blame the NRA.
Obviously it doesn’t make the Newtown Massacre any less terrible or excuse his actions, but it does seem apparent that Adam Lanza had emotional serious issues that had nothing to do with gun ownership, the Second Amendment or the NRA. He may have been boiling with rage and his mother’s apparent doomsday prepper obsession may have been the trigger that pushed him over the edge. But we are not asking these questions. It is certainly cheaper to pass a gun control law than to fix the other serious problems in our society. Why rebuild our broken institutions when we have such convenient targets. It is easier to blame the NRA.
Our country has been terrorized by senseless violence for several years. Our inner cities are devastated by crime. Gangs of youth run through the streets in American cities, robbing and beating anyone that gets in their way. Often people are targeted simply because of their race or religion. Yet to deal with that problem would require billions in funding to restore our inner cities, build more schools with less than 50 kids per classroom and put millions of young men and women to work. Its easier to blame the NRA.
Half of our population is living on some form of public assistance and they are doomed to a life of struggle and poverty. Are guns and gun owners to blame for this too or does the crippling poverty and hopelessness contribute to any of the violence that is plaguing America? It will cost billions more to improve the future for the poor in this country. We might even have to convince the corporations that control our nation to pay a fair wage and bring jobs back to America from foreign lands. But it is easier to blame the NRA.
The ravings of Michael Moore who said the NRA wants our children dead and called America a nation of killers founded on genocide will not solve our problems, but they will inflame the anger and increase the divide in our country. The foul mouthed comments of university Professor Erik Loomis, who called for the murder of the Vice President of the NRA will not bring back one child killed in Newtown, but it may get someone else killed. But why talk to each other civilly and find a common ground. It is easier to blame the NRA.
There is a hard but simple truth in all of this. There is work to be done in America to restore our nation and that work requires each and every one of us to make an effort to change our country for the better. Inflammatory rhetoric and calls for violence will accomplish absolutely nothing. When the smoke clears and the anger dies down, Americans will still be suffering from poverty, our kids will still commit suicide over bullying, and criminals will continue to victimize defenseless citizens. Nothing will change unless we stop the hate, abandon the blame game and understand that effective change comes from co-operation , not provocation and slander. But as we know, it is easier to blame the NRA.