{"id":1363,"date":"2013-04-16T12:19:18","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T18:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1363"},"modified":"2013-04-16T12:19:18","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T18:19:18","slug":"will-gun-bill-die-while-we-mourn-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/will-gun-bill-die-while-we-mourn-boston\/","title":{"rendered":"Will gun bill die while we mourn Boston?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Joan Walsh, Salon
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

Against the backdrop of the Boston Marathon tragedy, it feels unspeakably sad that\u00a0even compromise gun control legislation looks to be doomed in the Senate<\/a>. Bombs, not guns, were used in the Boston attack \u2013 trauma surgeons say they\u2019ve pulled pellets and nails out of the bombing victims; some had between 10 and 40 pieces of shrapnel inside them. \u00a0The Associated Press is reporting that the explosives may have been made with pressure cookers along with metal and ball bearings.<\/p>\n

But on a day when the forces of violence have clearly achieved a temporary victory \u2013 the forces of good always win in the end, as Patton Oswalt beautifully notes \u2014 \u00a0our failure to combat the most common source of violence in our culture, the proliferation and easy availability of guns, seems particularly tragic. The fact that today is also the sixth anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre adds just another layer of poignance to the news. While xenophobes obsess about a possible Muslim or al Qaeda role in the bombing, we ignore the most obvious ways to keep ourselves safer: by cracking down on automatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and the loopholes that let evil people kill so easily.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s at least one connection between Boston and the gun bill\u2019s stalling: Earlier today Sen. Joe Manchin told Politico he was counting on an appearance by Tucson shooting survivor Gabby Giffords to back the legislation sponsored by Manchin and GOP Sen. Pat Toomey, which would expand background checks and close the so-called \u201cgun show\u201d loophole.<\/p>\n

But Giffords\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0canceled her appearance due to the Boston tragedy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to watch the NRA win a victory particularly at this moment. The NRA, after all, has worked to hobble the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agency, which investigates certain types of domestic terrorism. But when the New York Times Nicholas Kristof tweeted<\/p>\n

explosion is a reminder that ATF needs a director. Shame on Senate Republicans for blocking apptment\u00a0articles.washingtonpost.com\/2013-02-01\/wor\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof)\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Right-wingers went apoplectic and Politico harrumphed, and Kristof deleted his Tweet and apologized.<\/p>\n

But there was nothing wrong with Kristof\u2019s observation: the right-wing politics hamstringing the ATF have been reprehensible. Likewise, Esquire\u2019s Charlie Pierce has been pilloried\u00a0for noting that the bombing occurred on Patriot\u2019s Day<\/a>, which celebrates the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which were actually fought on April 19, a day that has practically become a right-wing militia-survivalist-patriot holiday. Tim McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City\u2019s Murrah federal building that day.<\/p>\n

Pierce was replying to the nut-job who asked Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick \u201cIs this another false flag attack to take away our civil liberties?\u201d (yes, the Alex Jones line.) In that context it was entirely defensible to raise McVeigh and his domestic terrorist pals.<\/p>\n

There has also been plenty of reporting on a Saudi student seen at the site who has been repeatedly questioned by authorities. Most recent reports suggest he\u2019s not a suspect, and has cooperated with the investigation. There was nothing wrong with reporting on this student\u2019s questioning \u2013 unless you used him as evidence of that this was another jihadi attack, like Crazy\u00a0Pam Geller<\/a>. There was likewise nothing wrong with mentioning the evil of Timothy McVeigh and the anti-government ire that motivated his killing. No one on the left has tried to argue that Boston is the work of right-wing anti-government loons.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m surprised there\u2019s not more mention of Eric Rudolph, who was responsible for our last tragic sports-event terrorism: the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing. Rudolph, of course, turned out to be an anti-abortion terrorist who had also murdered abortion providers. In a piece about how the Boston Marathon bombing may effect us more than 9\/11, because of where it took place, the\u00a0National Journal\u2019s Ron Fournier suggests<\/a>\u00a0we may now fear terror at sporting events \u2014 but he doesn\u2019t mention Rudolph\u2019s Atlanta bombing \u2013 and churches.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s already been terrorism at churches: Steven Roeder shot Dr. George Tiller in the eye, while Tiller was serving as an usher at his Wichita Lutheran church five years ago. I\u2019m not blaming Fournier: overall throughout this 24 hours of coverage I\u2019ve been struck by how little the constant low-level terrorism against abortion providers has penetrated our national consciousness.<\/p>\n

And now it looks like our fledgling attempts at beefing up gun control may die the same week as this tragedy. What\u2019s even sadder, Mile 26 of the marathon, where the bombing occurred, was dedicated to the 26 victims of the Newtown massacre.\u00a0 We fail them, and we fail the victims of the Boston bombing, by surrendering to the bullies who protect guns and neuter government agencies like the ATF and make all of us less safe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joan Walsh, Salon click here for original article Against the backdrop of the Boston Marathon tragedy, it feels unspeakably sad that\u00a0even compromise gun control legislation looks to be doomed in the Senate. Bombs, not guns, were used in the Boston attack \u2013 trauma surgeons say they\u2019ve pulled pellets and nails out of the bombing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/sandy_hook_mourners-620x412.jpg?fit=620%2C412&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1366,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions\/1366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}