NYT: "Mr. LaPierre looked wild-eyed at times."

I've been thinking about this, and it occurs to me that the real culprit is bullets. Without bullets, guns merely are glorified clubs, and I can outrun them, not unlike wildlife fleeing cave men of old. And if cars are what makes us drunkards dangerous, I'm cool with banning them, and operating trams and buses, instead.

But what I do know is this. If I spray Bibles around the room, folks get deluded. Spray beer, and they get sticky. Paint, all multi-colored.

Gunfire? Well, you know the rest of it.

The N.R.A. Crawls From Its Hidey Hole (New York Times editorial)

No one seriously believed the N.R.A. when it said it would contribute something “meaningful” to the discussion about gun violence. The organization’s very existence is predicated on the nation being torn in half over guns. Still, we were stunned by Mr. LaPierre’s mendacious, delusional, almost deranged rant.

Mr. LaPierre looked wild-eyed at times as he said the killing was the fault of the media, songwriters and singers and the people who listen to them, movie and TV scriptwriters and the people who watch their work, advocates of gun control, video game makers and video game players.

The N.R.A., which devotes itself to destroying compromise on guns, is blameless.

Well a young man ... he ain't got nothin' in the world these days.

In case you were wondering, The Stone is a "forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless." This is a long and worthwhile read. Right, wrong or indifferent, it represents an attempt to think about root causes of phenomena, rather than our glib tendency as a nation to skate along the realm of symptoms.

Guns and the Decline of the Young Man, by Christy Wampole (The Stone, part of the New York Times Opinionator blog)

Adam Lanza was a young man. Jacob Roberts was a young man. James Holmes is a young man. Seung-Hui Cho was a young man. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were young men.

We can all name a dozen or so hypotheses about why they kill: their parents’ unlocked gun cabinet, easy access to weapons on the Internet, over- or under-medication, violent video games and TV programs, undiagnosed or misdiagnosed mental disorders, abusive or indifferent parents, no stable social network, bullying. However, young women are equally exposed to many of the same conditions yet rarely turn a weapon on others. This leaves us wondering about the young men.

There is something about life in the United States, it seems, that is conducive to young men planning and executing large-scale massacres. But the reasons elude us ...

Brian Howey: "Soul searching in Indiana and America in a post-Newtown era."

"I will not carry a gun, Frank. When I got thrown into this war I had a clear understanding with the Pentagon: no guns. I'll carry your books, I'll carry a torch, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I'll even 'hari kari' if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!"
--Hawkeye Pierce

I grew up around guns, and as an adult, I'd prefer guns not be around me.

To, me, firearms are roughly akin to cars, sports and Viagra as penile enhancement devices, and I already have a penis, thanks. Pieces of machinery generally are value-neutral, their performance dependent on the guiding mind of humans. Conversely, human minds infected with machismo, conspiracy theories, hatred, kitchen table formica and just plain variable mental health issues offer as much cause to be frightened as the typical armed robber, who after all, just wants money.

But: I'm no prohibitionist. My own professional world of alcoholic beverages symbolizes "legal but heavily regulated," and that strikes me as utterly appropriate. You need a gun to cope, and I need a bottle. More alcoholic beverages to redress alcoholism? I'll get right on it. Whatever gets you through your life, it's all right.

Apart from all that, I've little to say that isn't already being said. From a rotten national cultural perspective, Frank Rich hits the center of the target in terms of what is significant. In reddened Indiana, Brian Howey does the same. Here's an excerpt.

Soul searching in Indiana and America in a post-Newtown era, by Brian Howey (Howey Politics Indiana)

NASHVILLE, Ind. – A couple times a year, I invite friends to come down to my cabin here for some target practice in the valley below. We shoot into the base of a ridge.

Most of the guns brought were shotguns, .22s and pistols. But one friend brought a Chinese assault rifle with a clip and at one point, squeezed off a succession of 30 shots. After about the 10th shot, I found the sequence unnerving. The fire power was – choose a word here: awesome, spectacular, overwhelming, catastrophic . . .

My Friday morning last week seemed normal until I caught an initial, brief CNN report of a school shooting in Connecticut. Returning to the cabin about an hour later, the scope of the horror was only beginning to emerge. By Sunday, we would learn that the shooter, Adam Lanza, had used a Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle to gun down 20 children ages 6 and 7, along with the school principal, five teachers and his own mother. The kids suffered three to 11 gunshots each.

So this is the first set of thoughts I've deeply pondered, taking personal experience with the utter tragedy in Sandy Hook. The assault rifle is a military weapon, designed for battlefields. It really has no civilian application. I don't know any deer or turkey hunters who would take to the field with one. You don't need firepower of that magnitude to protect your home or property. On that front, an Elkhart police chief once told me that a pump action shotgun would be best for protecting home and self. "Anyone who hears you pump that will think twice about proceeding," he said.

John Rennard (who?) on Newtown: Christmas gifts and Jesus.

Part four of four. Reported at the Friendly Atheist blog.

The Worst Thing a Christian Could Say Following Yesterday’s Tragedy

December 15, 2012 By Hemant Mehta 343 Comments

It’s not a Poe:

I don’t know if I’m more disturbed by the comment or the fact that 41 people “liked” it… (Thank you to John Meredith for his sane response.)

Is it bad that I can’t even bring myself to get outraged over this? I’m so numb from hearing Christians say awful, insensitive things in the wake of tragedies. I know there are Christians out there who are responding to the shootings in a truly helpful way. No one doubts that. But let’s put to rest this notion that being a Christian makes you a better, kinder, more decent human being. It doesn’t and it never has.

Collins on Newtown: "We need to redefine who we are."

Part three of four.

Looking for America, by Gail Collins (New York Times)
By GAIL COLLINS

... Every country has a sizable contingent of mentally ill citizens. We’re the one that gives them the technological power to play god.

The Onion on Newtown: "Just Fuck It All to Hell."

Part two of four.

Fuck Everything, Nation Reports; Just Fuck It All To Hell, at The Onion

WASHINGTON—Following the fatal shooting this morning at a Connecticut elementary school that left at least 27 dead, including 20 small children, sources across the nation shook their heads, stifled a sob in their voices, and reported fuck everything. Just fuck it all to hell.

All of it, sources added.

Pierce on Newtown: "The bell tolls for all of us."

Part one of four.

The Bell Tolls For All Of Us, by Charles P. Pierce (Esquire Politics Blog)

... When we go on forever on the blog here about the value of a political commonwealth, and how it is a product of the ongoing creative process of self-government, this kind of response is what we're talking about. There are things we must do together, in a political context, because these things are too big — and, in this case, too monstrous — for us to handle alone. Self-government and its institutions — public schools, police and fire departments, the ridiculously underfunded mental-health facilities, and all the people to whom we increasingly begrudge their salaries — are the only things keeping us from falling back into barbarism, and the only things keeping us safe and sane when one of us falls back into it on their own.

We are our brother's keeper. The bell tolls for all of us. These very old — and, yes, Bryan, very Christian — concepts really do undergird our experiment in self-government. We all have an investment in the institutions through which we apply these concepts to each other and to ourselves. We have to nurture those institutions and guard them, because they are so very much more easily destroyed than they are to build. And, yes, dammit, we have to pay for them, and we have to pay the salaries of the people who work for them, because we are their keepers, too, and because the bell tolls for them the same way it tolls for all of us.