A poster at the April 15 "tea party" in Market Square.

Over the weekend a shooting took place in Florida which, as some commentators have already noted, bears a distinct resemblance to the Stanton Heights tragedy.

Joshua Cartwright gunned down two deputies before being killed in a shootout with other police. Cartwright, like Richard Poplawski, had been previously accused of domestic abuse. And according to a police report, Cartwright, again like Poplawski, apparently subscribed to conspiracy theories about the government. Cartwright’s wife said “her husband believed that the government was conspiring against him. She said he had been severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected President.” 

Guns don’t kill people: A delusional right-wing world view does. 

I know, I know: Not that simple. Even if today we also learn, courtesy our friends at the Post-Gazette, that gun sales continue to boom — thanks in large part to customers who share the fear that Obama is coming to get their guns.

A poster at the April 15 “tea party” in Market Square.

 

Of course, if a lefty went out on a killing spree, it would be unfair to try to blame Keith Olberman. Though I’m sure Fox News would try. Nor do I see this leading to renewed calls for gun control: Cartwright apparently wasn’t using an assault rifle … which you can almost imagine gun-rights absolutists using as a defense. 

But you know, somebody is making a lot of money by fomenting all this fear of Obama. Fox gets ratings. The NRA gets new members. Gun dealers and manufacturers, meanwhile, are maybe the only industry in America that is achieving record sales in the midst of a recession. It’s the rest of us — including, lately, our police — who seem to be paying the price.

This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2009.

E-mail Chris Potter about this post.

2 replies on “An echo of Stanton Heights?”

  1. I still don’t see any real national push for gun control. I hate to say it, too, but any gun control would not likely be very effective anyway, because of the huge volume of guns already out there. And any gun control that would emerge from Congress would likely be watered down in concessions to gun rights advocates (like the powerful NRA).

    We’re watching a guy drowning in a lake, and saying that if we get wet trying to save him, it will mean all swiming will be outlawed.

  2. I too am dubious about the prospects for gun control … and about the prospects for any such legislation to make a difference.

    You know, I’ve probably said this before, but Michael Moore’s film “Bowling for Columbine” seems more and more prescient in many ways. Lots of NRA backers hate the film, but really Moore’s argument isn’t about guns: It’s about fear. The premise of the film, for those who haven’t seen it, is that what separates America from other countries isn’t the number of firearms we own … it’s that our entire culture is permeated with violence and fear and distrust. The media — particularly the TV news — comes in for at least as much criticism as the NRA does.

    Moore focused specifically on fear of crime (which was declining even as crime REPORTS on TV were increasing). But clearly what’s circulating these days is fear of GOVERMENT, a steady diet of which is being distributed by radio and TV.

    I’m not totally sold on that argument, because the implications are disturbing. I tend to recoil, for example, from those who want to blame video games for violence. Maybe that’s just because of my own biases — the sacred cow I wish to protect while going after someone else’s. Or maybe there’s a difference between media that are explicitly fantasies (video games, Marilyn Manson songs) and those that pass themselves off as real “news.”

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