The Weekly Screed (#592)

The Aurora massacre 
and the lesson of Roe v. Wade 
by David Benjamin

BROOKLYN — As I write, Americans have four more days to grieve over the 70 people gunned down — and 12 killed — by James Holmes, the nation’s latest celebrity pyscho. There are only four more days for the talking heads to frown evocatively into the camera and lead the nation in pretending to care about a dozen luckless nobodies who became collateral damage in America’s most popular blood sport, the public massacre.

Four more days. Then we can all rinse out our consciences, watch the Olympics and forget. Few of us actually know the names of the latest dozen victims. After so many massacres, how could we? It’ll be weeks before most of forget Holmes’ name. Don’t think we will?

A) Name the sicko who shot Gabrielle Giffords. Bet you can’t.

B) And does the name Nathan Van Wilkins ring a bell? Bet it doesn’t.

The answer to “A” is Jared Loughner. (Oh, yes! That’s right!). The answer to “B” is that Wilkins is the nut who shot up a Tuscaloosa bar — gunning down 17 people — three days before Holmes spectacularly upstaged him in Colorado. Three days.

If I seem cynical about the sheer, tedious, everyday ordinariness of mass murders by white-male dead-enders (whom the media would never insult by using the word “terrorist”), you evidently missed the chorus of Sunday-morning “analysts,” including Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, and former New York police chief Ben Bratton. They all agreed that no sane lawmaker today would dare to even hint at any restrictions on universal access to military-grade ordnance (100-bullet magazines, machine guns, “cop-killer” cartridges, rocket-propelled grenades, whatever), for fear of being blasted into political Kingdom Come by Wayne LaPierre and the National Rifle Association. Shrum noted that the NRA-puppet Republican Party is officially opposed to restricting gun sales even to suspects on the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Terrorist Watch List.

There are actually deeper depths of cynicism. Matt Bennett, co-founder of the Third Way (allegedly a political alternative to the supine Dems and the cordite-junkie GOP), said, “Nothing happened when a congresswoman was shot in the head. Nothing happens when dozens of kids are shot in a movie theater. It’s a terrible truth, but it is the truth.”

But for real cynicism — mixed with macho fantasy — you need to tune in the gun-toting fringe. Luke O’Dell of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners described how sublime life could be if all of us were to embrace James Holmes’ coping methods: “Potentially, if there had been a law-abiding citizen who had been able to carry [his own assault weapon] in the theater, it’s possible the death toll would have been less.” In this analysis, O’Dell was joined by a chorus of Republicans, led by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert.

As I listened Sunday to liberal cynics surrendering to the gun lobby’s right-wing cynics, I couldn’t help but think about abortion. In 1973, in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court extended virtually unlimited abortion rights to all Americans in every state.

In a 2010 Second Amendment case, District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court granted the same vast liberty to gun-owners, gun-buyers, gun-lovers and gunslingers.

Now, in the 37 years between those decisions, look what’s happened to abortion. The rights granted by the Court have shrunk to shreds of what they were in 1973, largely owing to the tireless efforts of anti-abortion activists. Protesters focused demonstrations, verbal and physical attacks, even their willingness to kill in the name of “pro-life,” on what might be termed the “retail outlets” of family planning. Today, few general hospitals, ob-gyn practitioners, obstetric clinics or other women’s health providers offer abortions routinely. Many states now have only one or two specifically chartered “abortion clinics,” staffed by doctors and nurses who know their lives are at risk.

So, I wonder. What would happen if there arose an equally passionate anti-gun movement in response to Heller? What if the gun industry’s “retail outlets” suffered the shrill negative pressure that has plagued abortion providers for four decades. What if every outlet of Gander Mountain, the corporation who sold James Holmes his AR-15 assault rifle, were surrounded by protesters calling their employees “baby-killers?”

What if Bass Pro Shops, who sold Holmes a 12-gauge shotgun and a 9-mm Glock, were assailed at corporate HQ and at every store in the U.S.A. by picketers with giant photos of Holmes’ victims, including that little six-year-old girl? Would company leaders persist in selling guns, even at risk of going out of business because customers were afraid to cross the picket line — just as pregnant teenagers tend to flee when they’re faced by a bristling wall of screaming pro-lifers? Or would Bass’s bosses decide that maybe they’re better off sticking to rods, reels, creels and daredevils?

What if anti-gun protesters — led by the families of the hundreds of innocents killed annually in “inexplicable” bloodbaths perpetrated by “quiet” little gunmen who were always “nice” to their neighbors — descended, like anti-abortion zealots on all the other big-box stores with fat, prosperous gun departments? Dick’s. Big Five. Cabela’s. Wal-Mart. Would they remain faithful to the NRA? Or would they add up the numbers and choose quietly to stop selling guns to maniacs — or to anyone.

If a grass-roots movement rose up to demand an end to the carnage, I wonder. Would the NRA ride to the rescue of all those Bass Pro Shops? And how would they help, exactly? Cash subsidies? Armed hunters? Maybe Wayne LaPierre could just stand there shouting pro-gun crapola ‘til all the protesters got nauseous and went home.

Cynics might note that, although James Holmes bought some of his ordnance over the counter, he ordered his ammo and body armor on the Web. You can harass retailers, but that won’t stop mass murderers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

True, but neither have anti-abortion protests stopped all abortions. They’ve merely made an abortion provider a hell of a lot harder to find. They have merely frustrated, profoundly, any troubled woman who ponders the prospect of ending her pregnancy.

Right now, that sort of frustration might be a big help. Maybe it would delay just long enough — ‘til he has second thoughts — the next psycho who thinks he can square his beef with a cruel, cruel world by slaughtering 20 or 30 strangers at the metroplex.