Following the horrific massacre in Uvalde, Texas, calls for tightened gun control restrictions arose as predictably from some corners as the counter-argument that was tossed back that additional mental health assets and armed teachers and tougher law enforcement were the policies that would create a safer society. With the appalling frequency of these tragic events comes a sad familiarity with the resulting “debate”. By “debate”, of course, we refer to a habit on both sides of designating their opponents as “gun nuts” or “gun grabbers”, “red necks” or “socialists”, that has only intensified in the 23 years since Columbine, the decade since Sandy Hook, and the weeks since Uvalde, Texas. The usual suspects on both sides arrive on cue with the same arguments.
Yesterday saw politicians at protests across the state stridently attacking their opponents for wanting to take away individual rights. For taking an un-American step down a dark road to tyranny.
Was it a gun rights rally or an abortion rights march?
The parallels in the rhetoric would be ironically amusing were they not so troubling. Have Americans reached a point at which they are only capable of screaming at each other through the most simplistic and venal memes and sound bites you can imagine? Are we so incapable of wrapping our minds around ideas we disagree with that anyone espousing it can only be lying, evil, and intent on our destruction?
