tisdag 22 januari 2013

Steve Holm: A National Tragedy

Holm på Sverigebesök. Foto AN
En amerikansk vän, Steve Holm, skriver i sin blogg, Desert Graces, om vapenvansinnet i USA:
"Guns were commonplace in the community where I grew up and when I was a teenager I learned to use the rifles and shotguns that were in our home for target shooting and hunting. I wasn’t a particularly avid hunter but I participated because it’s what people did. It was like cheering for the Green Bay Packers, as natural as eating or drinking. I didn’t think much about the guns…they were just there.
"Later on I lived in Wyoming, and though I had not intended to be a hunter, I learned to participate in that annual fall ritual because nearly everyone in the congregation I served hunted. Many pick-ups had gun racks with visible rifles and nobody thought much about it. I certainly didn’t! It was during those years that I started hearing about gun control laws and realized that the whole subject was hugely controversial. Cars sprouted bumper stickers with all the catchy slogans like, “The West Wasn’t Won With A Registered Gun,” and “When Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns.” I started hearing about the National Rifle Association and learned that it was girding up for a huge battle to protect our Second Amendment rights."
När jag igår såg installationsceremonin för Barack Obama slogs jag av denna kärnfrågas totala frånvaro. Nu var Obama tillbaka på det gamla spåret igen, med ett omkväde, "We - the people", som bäddades in i fluffig retorik och vackra visioner. Steve Holm igen:
"Our president has signed executive orders to address this issue and legislation to control guns and ammunition has been proposed. Congress is currently posturing, something it does very well, but no one believes that anything meaningful can be passed. I suspect the pessimists are right. There’ll be all kinds of pontificating, misleading statistics will be quoted, people will flock to the gun shops to get more weapons, and the killing will continue."
"I hope I’m wrong on this. I support the legislation that has been proposed and I want it to pass. But human beings are funny. The NRA (National Rifle Association), through years of propagandizing, has established the context for the debate. Their slogans and bumper stickers have been taken to heart and accepted as revealed truth. Many people actually believe that more guns make our country safer. The 30,000 who died? Well, they say, just imagine how many would have died if we didn’t have so many guns! When passions run high, logic goes out the window!"