The NRA’s Deadly Legacy: Mass Shootings are “Commonplace” with “Ritualized” Responses
Posted: July 21, 2012 Filed under: Gun Control, Mental Health, Politics as Usual, Second Amendment | Tags: assault wepaons, gun control, mass shootings, NRA clout 53 CommentsLet me ask you a question or two. Do you know any sane person or noncriminal that feels the need to hunt or defend their homes with an arsenal of assault 
weapons?
Can you word associate with Columbine? Virginia Tech? Gabby Giffords? or The Dark Knight Rising? and not attach these things with mass slaughter by crazy people that can’t find psychiatric help but appear to be able to get access to any paramilitary weapon and item their crazy little heart desires?
Isn’t there something seriously wrong with a country that lets this happen?
Mass shootings by disturbed gunmen have become so commonplace over the past generation that the response is now a virtual ritual.
The initial shock of news reports is followed by words of anger and comfort by public leaders — followed by almost nothing of substance.
Now, I’m reading right wing articles about how a brave person with a concealed weapon could’ve stopped this latest rampage. WTF is wrong with these people? Don’t they see the collateral damage that comes from the sho0t-outs that occur between gang members all packing concealed weapons in the inner city? We bury children caught in the crossfire down here all the time. So does Chicago. They want the entire country to look like Tombstone Arizona or some romanticized John Wayne Movie version of it?
But what if someone had a gun? This might become an important question. We know, from recent shooting incidents, that legislation to expand concealed-carry areas is now more frequent than serious restrictive legislation. If someone in the theater were armed, how could he have reacted?
He could have drawn quickly, said Block. “I can draw and get shots off consistently in 1.3, 1.2 seconds,” he said. “But it might take two seconds to fire. Why? I want to get down on my knees. You know the curvature between the two seats? That’s where my muzzle is going to be. I find the V, the gap between the seats, and I move down into the row where I have a clear shot. Now, I could stand up over everyone else, and engage him. If I stand up, I can see him, he can see me. If I’m down low shooting between two seats, I have a tactical advantage. I can crawl between them, pop up, take a shot.”
Yes. The NRA is already gearing up for any one that dares to mention redoing the assault weapons ban passed during the Clinton years. They were even so insensitive as to continue to post gun fetish style tweets the morning after. Grover Norquist and the NRA have the country hamstrung through their influence on Congress.
Politico’s Josh Gernstein knows the routine by now. Our weekend plans will be to watch the news and see prayerful, do-nothing politicians, shell-shocked survivors, and pundits that tut-tut our gun culture. It’s the pantomime mass shoot out ritual. The right wing will say its because we’re all not armed and the left wing will say we can’t get any gun regulations through congress any more. It’s the automatic animatronic autonomic national response to an ongoing crisis: Mass Death by Assault Weapons. It happens every day in an inner city neighborhood but only gets the national news treatment when its high schools or shopping malls in white suburbia. Death by shoot out is as commonplace as it gets in any major US city these days.
The presumption of inaction is so strong that the responses of politicians are now typically judged mostly through the prism of atmospherics and theater: Were our leaders eloquent? Did they unify the nation — fleetingly — in their unavoidable role as mourner-in-chief? Did their public displays of emotion shed new light on their ability to empathize with their fellow Americans?
Some experts see a kind of massacre fatigue setting in, in which the unthinkable becomes so numbingly commonplace that there’s little collective thought of doing more than simply saying, “Sorry.”
“Unfortunately, we’ve developed a ritual for these, because it has happened so often,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania. “Campaigns are ceasing their activities. Advertising has been pulled. The candidates have indicated that in many cases, it’s not appropriate to engage in some of the more trivial kinds of debates, like those that have characterized the last week.”
So President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney in the coming days will likely stick to sympathetic, prayerful public statements, as they try to keep politics out of a tragic moment while still attempting to project compassion on a national stage.
But when the mourning ends, Obama and Romney and other politicians seem all but certain to move on — without pushing or even proposing any significant changes in policy. For congressional candidates, especially Democrats in tough races, there is little political upside to suggesting any aggressive remedies for preventing another gun massacre because the blowback from the gun lobby would be powerful.
Yup, the response will be to pander to the religious by offering prayers, send out sympathy to the latest batch of victims, and continue to fellate the NRA.
And this celebrated mythology, replayed every day in every cinema, every TV, in books and music is seductive and dangerous to what German professor Ines Geipel called the “Wounded Outsiders.” In her book The Amok Complex, she analyzed five mass shootings in Europe and distilled from the gunmen a common character. They live in pricey towns, come from well-heeled families but are labeled outsiders due to their failure to achieve in the high pressure of class paranoia. In an interview on the German news site DW, she said that after being isolated they retreat into a fictional world. “Most of them have a strong affinity to theater and film,” Geipel said. “It is the desperate search for their own skin, for their own role in life.”
In the British paper the Independent, Dr. Keith Ashcroft wrote how the path from low self-esteem is layered with resentment which becomes paranoia. The retreat from others into a shrinking world of rage and self-pity creates the conditions for more social isolation. A fast and powerful downward spiral begins that pulls the young men into fantasies of revenge. And finally there is some triggering event, loss of a lover or a job or a home that snaps him. “Their paranoia heightens the sense that the whole world is against them, which increases their anger,” he wrote “It is very immature to want a gun in order to have a sense of power and fulfillment. But it is a way of regaining control.”
As long as well let the gun culture define our approach to these individuals, we better buy a lot of stock in funeral homes and get use to the ritual.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
This is exactly why it made me sick to read the news about these murders yesterday. Nothing will be done. The NY Daily News has an editorial on it: Blood on the Hands of Obama, Mitt, and the NRA!
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/blood-hands-obama-mitt-nra-article-1.1119049#ixzz21ICCsAXL
Did anyone at the U. of Denver try to find out why James Holmes was dropping out? He was supposedly a top student and had a paid position of some kind. Did he have problems with a professor or another student? Were there recent changes in his behavior? Did anyone try to reach out to him or to his parents? Maybe they did.
We just don’t know enough yet, but I’m willing to bet he had a psychological disorder of some kind. He may have been developing schizophrenia, as I suggested yesterday. This may have been his first psychotic break. Or he simply could have had a one-time psychotic break from stress. Something was clearly wrong.
Thanks for this thoughtful post, Dak.
Thanks for reading my rant, BB … I just can’t believe how making it more difficult to get an assault weapon violates the second amendment.
Dr dak. Haven’t had time to read the post yet. But BRAVA on the title.
Me either (reading post yet) but I agree with Mona!
None of the weapons he used were really “assault weapons”. The AR-15 is based on an assault rifle (the M-16), but it is strictly semi-automatic. There’s nothing about it that’s any more dangerous than dozens of other rifles – it’s less powerful than most hunting rifles (in fact, it’s illegal to hunt deer with that caliber (.223) in many states including Colorado because it isn’t considered powerful enough). The Remington 12-ga. shotgun is a fairly typical hunting gun, and the .40-cal Glocks are semi-automatic handguns.
The AR-15 had 100-shot cartridge on it, and you’re saying it wasn’t dangerous? How did he manage to hit 71 people with it within about 90 seconds then?
Did you have a point?
Well, that’s nice to know a simple hunting rifle can do so much damage. I’m glad I didn’t let my children play in homes of gun owners now.
The high-capacity magazine was certainly dangerous. Those were made illegal in 1994, but the ban expired in 2004. They certainly ought to be regulated – at the very least subject to restrictions similar to fully-automatic weapons, if not banned outright. My point is that the misuse of the term “assault weapon” (in the law, no less) isn’t really helpful in figuring out what sort of regulation might prevent something like this from happening again. He could have wreaked this carnage with any number of weapons which have never been subject to any restrictions at all.
How does someone purchase thousands of rounds of ammunition, have them delivered to his home, and not attract attention?
That’s the problem with the lone wolf-type killers … the very people that would be aware of issues are they type unlikely to to put things like that together … I wonder if the UPS man knew he was delivering that many bullets? Did any of the gun people know this guy was suddenly buying stuff … I don’t know if there’s a way to track sudden, massive pile-ups of things like this.
Sounds like assault weapons to me:
BTW, since when do deer hunters need semi-automatics?
Well, Dak, if he’d used a larger caliber rifle there likely would have been a higher percentage of deaths. The criterion for an “assault weapon” under the (now-defunct) ban was a semiautomatic rifle with a detachable magazine possessing at least two of the following characteristics:
1) a folding or telescoping stock
2) a flash suppressor
3) a pistol grip
4) a grenade launcher
5) a bayonet mount
I’m not sure whether the AR-15 used by Holmes would even have qualified. It may have only had a pistol grip, for example. Certainly none of those characteristics would have contributed to the carnage in any way, so it seems rather beside the point to be talking about “assault weapons” in the context of this attack. There are a whole host of semiautomatic rifles without pistol grips or folding stocks that would have been just as dangerous, and in many cases more so. Let me give you a couple of quick examples. The following rifles are both from the same manufacturer. They both fire .223 ammo. They are both semiautomatic. They both take exactly the same magazines (and would accept the 100 round magazine Holmes purchased):
This is not an “assault weapon” under the 1994 law because it has a pistol grip but no telescoping stock:
http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/centerfire/model-r-15/model-r-15-vtr-predator-carbine.aspx
This is an “assault weapon” under the 1994 law because it has a telescoping stock – otherwise it’s identical to the last one:
http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/centerfire/model-r-15/model-r-15-predator-carbine-cs.aspx
I do not believe the first weapon is any less dangerous than the second.
I guess my question is about the huge quantity (>6000 rounds) of ammunition he purchased and had delivered. I believe ammunition has to be declared to shippers and I would have expected any dealer to comply with that. So why didn’t UPS or FedEx or whoever notice that they were shipping all that ammunition to a residence? I’m surprised they didn’t notify ATF, DHS, or the Aurora cops.
Yes. And it also seems that Colorado should be checking its guns sales to see if any new purchasers are stocking up on odd things suddenly. Any one that gets a ‘new’ permit and then buys an arsenal should be put on some kind of list.
Propertius,
You should contact the Aurora PD, the FBI, and the Brady Center and explain to them why they should stop calling the AR-15 an “assault weapon” when they talk to the media. I’m sure they’re anxious to be educated.
From the link provided by NW Luna:
Frankly, I can’t see what possible difference it makes, since there is no longer an assault weapons ban and there is not going to be any new gun control legislation. Twelve people are dead, and many of the wounded are still in critical condition. And you want to argue about the gun used for this massacre. Please be so kind as to take this up with the authorities!
I read somewhere that either a professor or the head of the college said that Holmes’ ID cards/access to the neuroscience buildings had been revoked. Revoked may not have been the word used, but whatever word was used, it made it sound as if it was the university’s decision for him to leave the doctoral program & research projects he was working on. And he left the program in June, yet reports say he bought the first weapon in May. Personally, bb, I think your supposition will prove to be true, whether schizophrenia or some truly disturbing incident. Either way, did the university refer him to a mental health professional? Certainly based on police reports, nothing was reported to them. Can’t find the link, but this one says Holmes made a presentation in May:
“As part of the advanced program in Denver, a James Holmes had been listed as making a presentation in May about Micro DNA Biomarkers in a class named “Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders.”
Here’s the full link: http://hosted2.ap.org/txdam/54828a5e8d9d48b7ba8b94ba38a9ef22/Article_2012-07-21-Colorado%20Shooting-Suspect/id-9e0d6d5c449243eb9c77c540e79b5ee4
I haven’t heard that about his ID’s being revoked. I’m assuming that he was asked to leave the program for some reason and was enraged about it. I could be wrong, of course.
There is so little information, but those were my thoughts. It seemed telling that he bought the first gun the same month he gave the presentation. Of course, at this point, everything is speculation. The police/FBI may know more but aren’t releasing it due to the court date on Monday.
The link I couldn’t find said the neuroscience buildings were evacuated to be certain staff/students weren’t in danger. Sounded like they wanted to make sure there were no “booby traps” set there, as if they anticipated possible retribution from Holmes. Again, only speculation on my part.
Holmes was supposedly obsessed with the game “Guitar Hero.” That doesn’t seem likely to inspire violence.
He was scheduled to give the presentation. I haven’t seen any reports that he gave it.
That makes sense that they evacuated the neuroscience building.
Minor nit: he attended the Denver campus of the University of Colorado, not the University of Denver (a private institution). I assume nobody at UCD is going to be talking for fear of liability.
Since he was in the neuroscience program at the med school, I would have expected someone to have noticed any behavioral abnormalities.
He’s certainly the right age for onset of schizophrenia (mid-twenties) and his reported shyness might have masked some of the early symptoms (blunted affect, alogia, etc.). I assume we’ll find out more about his mental state in the coming days and weeks.
Good point Luna — in addition — has anyone heard of bow seasons — hunting deer with a bow and arrows?
My grandfather during the Great Depression hunted deer — used one bullet from an ordinary rifle for that time. He never wasted a bullet. Deer hunting was for survival.
That’s what hunting is for. Not just gratuitous slaughter.
Yes, in this state there is a bow season for a certain period.
Others have asked — When will we have enough of the NRA enabling the psychopaths?
The NRA has blood on their hands — all the people who fund the bullies in the NRA and all the politicians who fall in line and do the bidding of the NRA.
The idea that “if only” one person in the theater had a gun — then he could have returned fire. The idiots who are saying this are ignoring the trend with recent psychopaths of wearing full body armor. The sort of magic where the sharp shooter gets off the perfect shot — in broad daylight is movie mythology.
The NRA is living in an alternative reality. Those folks are missing the empathy gene.
As I mentioned in another response — the military trains recruits in basic training how to behave while under fire. There were three known military personnel in that theater — one is presumed dead and two others were treated and released.
When someone is shooting in a dark theater — the first response is shock — and then some people freeze (fight or flight response). Even without training some people will hit the floor, play dead or crawl away from danger. Which is hard to do when there are so many panicked people trying to get away. Many people don’t think or behave rationally under such extreme conditions — we are after all only human.
We should not even have to think about NRA enabled psychopaths laying in wait.
BB raised all the questions that have been running through my mind — do colleges even have human interactions anymore. Are there not mentors who spend time talking with and advising college students? We have a crisis in mental health awareness in this country. Why was this guy dropping out of college??? We need more information — about this person and we need to understand how he flew under the radar. This guy was in a place where his behavior should be been at least questioned. NEUROLOGY !!!!!!!!!!!
But we know that nothing will change — mental health education — awareness of, treatment of and even prevention of future mass murderers won’t happen. NRA will continue to enable the psychopaths.
He must have had a mentor. At least in my Ph.D. program, every grad student had a faculty member who acted as mentor and sponsor.
Higher-ed funding has been slashed everywhere and no more so than at public universities. The University of Washington has now had its budget cut by 50% over the last 4 years. Student-health and counseling services are cut too.
In my doctoral program my supervisory chair and committee members were overworked (again due to budget cuts). While my chairperson was phenomenal about keeping track of me, not all faculty are like that. Depending on the faculty and the student, I could see someone getting lost for a few months.
That’s probably true. I got my Ph.D. at a private university. They limited the number of people admitted to the program based on how many could be fully supported. My mentor made sure I got publications, provided research opportunities, and met with me just about every week for years. I was very fortunate.
I wanted to let everyone know that my relatives in Aurora are okay. What a relief. Thank you for your positive thoughts.
Aurora is only 15 miles from Columbine. It’s about the same distance to Littleton, where there were shootings at a middle school in 1982 and again in 2010.
That’s great news. So glad you’ve had contact with your relatives & that they are safe.
That’s a relief. Thank you for letting us know!
Glad to hear this.
Oh Beata, I have been so worried…thank you for letting us know!
Holmes’ Adult Friend Finder page said “Will you visit me in prison?” at the top.
The fanaticism of the right wing is apparent when someone actually suggests that two people shooting in a dark theater would be better than one.
How about when someone claims the rifle that killed 12 people and wounded 59 others isn’t particularly dangerous? See upthread.
A Cannonfire commenter linked to this video that suggests that Holmes probably called himself “the Riddler,” who had red hair rather than “the Joker” who had green hair. There’s a lot of profanity in the video….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEHQCOdWukY
I found an article that says that Holmes’ “building access was terminated in June.” (As Connie said upthread).
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/campus-research-buildings-evacuated-shooting-16823760#.UAsyI7Se7Xg
Here’s another one:
It does sound like he was asked to leave. That’s probably the triggering event. But he was apparently doing well, so there must have been some strange behavior or something.
I think that’s the story I’d seen earlier. Glad you managed to find it.
I should just go through JJ’s post from last night. I couldn’t face reading about it then.
I saw something about Holmes spitting and acting crazy in jail…I think it was a NY Daily News link…
Here is the link!
Aurora shooting suspect James Holmes jailed in solitary: ‘All the inmates were talking about killing him’ – NY Daily News
A few other links, not sure if they have been posted, I got a date with the tv in 15 minutes…so I am a bit hurried.
Two portraits of theater shooting suspect James Holmes emerge – USATODAY.com
Aurora and the US deal with massacre’s aftermath as stories of the dead emerge | World news | guardian.co.uk
Suspect’s Behavior Provided Few Clues – WSJ.com
Photos of James Holmes, camp counselor for underprivileged kids – Open Channel
Thanks, JJ! Enjoy the movie. I wish I had TCM.
Still more evidence of a psychotic break. He could be in and out of psychosis and still be able to to do the planning he did. If he has paranoid schizophrenia, he could be fairly high functioning, especially if this is his first episode.
Yes that sounds about right.
At times they can be lucid and almost seem normal.
So, In the state of Colorado, where guns are easily obtained and carried, no one in the theater either had one or chose to use one in self defense. I think that says something about what the average person really does with their own gun, should they have one.
This kind of protection does not appear to be generally useful. Who really wants to carry all that weight around in the event that something might, might, might happen. Where where the teachers’ guns at Columbine? Assuming guns were in the audience, no one knew what to do, or were afraid to for various reasons.
Without repetitive training guns are useless or worse. That’s why we have police to carry them around. Any NRA based call to arms is pure puffery.
Don’t forget that the shooter used tear gas — which along with the bullet “resistant” gear the shooter wore more or less negated anyone who happened to have a gun under their armpit or in their purse. Tear gas is really nasty.
We need to contact politicians on all levels and tell them that military weapons of mass murder need to be banned. I’m going to start nagging the politicians again.
Research indicates that a copy cat psychopath might try something in two weeks.
I suppose there is always the fantasy of heroically picking up the canister and throwing it back. However, thank you for underscoring the situation. Unless you are ready to die and trust that the ones behind you will grab or kill perpetrator from behind your bleeding carcass, I don’t how the situation is changed or improved by personal handguns. Most of us hope to live and aren’t ready for this kind of paradigm shift from victim to dead hero. People heroically rushing the cockpit of a doomed plane spring to mind as an example.
This link is to a video speaking about the politicians non action in banning military style weapons to be sold to anyone who has the money. The man Cenk Uygur is interviewing is a survivor from another psychopath’s (using layperson’s words) rampage., Colin Goddard who was shot 4 times at Virginia Tech.
http://current.com/shows/the-young-turks/videos/today-is-the-day-to-demand-a-change-to-our-gun-laws
Good catch!
That is a powerful video — it make me start on emails and letters to politicians!
Well-researched article in the New Yorker on gun murders and the 2nd Amendment, which was never intended to refer to private citizens or to modern guns. Also explains “semi-automatic,” which doesn’t sound much slower than an automatic.
Finally a commentary that discusses the mental illness aspect, not just the gun aspect. Our society treats mental illness like a weakness. We need to treat it like its a disease. There should be mental health screenings(just like we have screenings for high blood prssure, cholesterol or diabetes.) Additionally, we need to create a system that keeps guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. Mental health needs to achieve parity with physical symptoms and until we do that I see more of these incidents occuring.