How to Speak about the Unspeakable

[dobrovolets]

My list of Facebook friends and people I follow on Twitter leans heavily toward the portion of the political spectrum ranging from "just to the left of Barack Obama" to "somewhere to the left of Leon Trotsky". (I would define myself to be trying to be as radical as reality itself.) I also get some less direct exposure, via those media, to people

Comments

[joycemocha]

As a middle school teacher (as well as being a Thurston High graduate and a former student of Kip Kinkel's dad), let me tell you, I can imagine your last paragraph far too well. Have been doing just that.

[jaylake]

I definitely fall into the #1 "guns are bad" category as a top-line summary, but I really don't recognize myself in your description of what that means. I do not have a pornographic fascination with firearms, nor am I particularly naive about state power. For whatever that's worth.

In any case, thanks for the round up. Going into tomorrow's link salad.

[dobrovolets]

Thanks!
It wasn't meant to be a comprehensive overview--my sample is limited (200+ social media accounts) and unscientific, though it includes influential outlets like The Atlantic (which was one of the places where I noticed a fascination with the physical dimensions of the "Bushmaster"--a name about which much can be said, semiotically). More a subjective summary of that limited sample.

[goulo]

Agreed; most of the people I see with "pornographic fascination with images" of guns seem to be gun fans. (Heck, just google for gun porn. I don't think most of what you'll find is stuff from anti-gun people.)

And an awful lot of the people I see discontent with the US's crazy gun obsession also seem distrustful of the US government, including when Democrats are in power.

But that second observation is certainly dependent on the observer; I know there are also plenty of gun control supporters who seem quite happy to trust e.g. the government's newly asserted right to assassinate US citizens without a trial, confident that this power will only be used against Terrorists and other Bad Guys. I just personally tend to talk to and follow people who are also skeptical of the government's good will.

[sabotabby]

I'm guilty of several of these to be sure (hey, my drone-strike post was after Obama's speech, though

[dobrovolets]

I'm definitely not demonizing the mother: More trying to think empathetically about what could have been running through her mind. In my experience, many parents take upon themselves responsibility for the actions of their children, even adult children, even when that sense of responsibility is misplaced. (Not all parents, of course: My father, for example, has accustomed himself to thinking of me and my siblings as our mother's responsibility, and thereby absolves himself of all praise or blame.) The anguish that she must have felt in those final moments of her life--unless she herself was a sociopath, which I doubt, as elementary school teacher is not a career that tends to attract that personality type--is barely fathomable.
"Security guard in every school" seems to be where those who start with #4 as an assumption, but recognize the absurdity of having weaponry stationed in the classroom, are trending. And yes, it's an idea that I find sinister, for reasons much like yours. (Hoping to avoid that is part of why I moved out of NYC.)

[sabotabby]

The thing is, the extent of U.S. gun culture gets exaggerated by U.S. political culture, and the fascination of both U.S. and foreign media with it as a phenomenon. Even in states that allow concealed-carry, the number of permits actually issues suggest it's a relatively fringe phenomenon. For most gun owners here, the attitude is much like the one you describe in Canada. It's just that the subcultures in which the more flagrant brandishing of firearms takes place have an outsized impact.

Which, in itself, is fascinating. I would imagine that most people believe in something between #4 and #1. And yet the advocates of #4 have managed to hijack the political agenda to such a degree that any talk of restrictions becomes a sinister conspiracy by the Islamofascistcommie Obama to take everyone's guns away.

It's weird and scary.

[dobrovolets]

I'm having a hard time imagining what would lie in between #4 and #1--since both are confused, emotional reactions at variance with all available evidence, most likely it's a confused hodgepodge of both. Which wouldn't surprise me. People have their inconsistencies, and I'm trying to learn to be more patient with them.
I think what the unfortunately existing sample of past mass shootings shows us is that physical courage is the most important factor in preventing or mitigating them. And I fear that since most people are basically cowards--but that many cowards misperceive themselves as potential heroes--the temptation is either to outsource courage to people whose "job" it is to exhibit it, or imagine that a tool, transformed into a fetish object (i.e. the gun, wielded in self-defense), will confer its magical powers upon us. Which is why #4 is so tempting, even for people who also, on some level, believe in #1. Hence the contradictions.

[queerbychoice]

It's my understanding that the shooter killed his mother at her house before he went to her school to kill her students and co-workers, so she may never have suspected that he was going to kill anyone other than her. Small mercies, perhaps.

[queerbychoice]

And now some articles are saying that his mother wasn't employed at the school at all, and that the shooter's only connection to the school was that he had once attended it.

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Conn-gunman-broke-in-shot-some-victims-twice-4120488.php

[dobrovolets]

If I had the heart to follow the "factual" reporting closely enough, I'd be astonished at how thoroughly the news media seem to have fucked this story up. (But I don't: I'm the father of a kindergartener, and therefore am "following" this only to the extent that it has been made inescapable.)

[frandroid]

8. Except that we're not asking him to be as sorry about other random massacres elsewhere in the world, but rather to be as sorry for those he is directly responsible for killing, and ultimately, not kill them.