THOMPSON: It’s time for Americans to witness the truth about mass shootings

OPINION

It’s time that people start seeing what has long been hidden from them. News media outlets for decades have kept photographs, and more recently videos, of unspeakable horrors from our view intentionally.

In the great majority of cases it has been done not out of a sense of unfair censorship, but out of honesty…to spare us a pain so searing that responsible journalists, editors and publishers believe showing them would do more harm than good.

Ethically and morally, decisions were made – and still are made – by the news media to shield us from what they considered too gory, too disturbing, too horrific for public consumption.

Certainly, there is a good argument to avoid photographs and video that sensationalize suffering…horrendous injuries, frightful mutilations and ghastly deaths. There are, after all, some – like those who watch races simply to see crashes – that would feast on the macabre.

Even so, it is time for one culture…people who live in the United States…to shoulder that risk. It is time to show everyone the photographs and video of what a weapon made for fighting a war – that can shoot at least 45 rounds a minute and when simply modified with a bump stock can shoot 400 rounds a minute – does to a human body.             

There is not a universal need for showing photographs of what AR-15-style rifle bullets can do. Only America has a problem with killing its own – women, men, children – in almost daily mass murders. No other nation comes close to such disrespect for life…not even nations that are at full-scale war.

Gun advocates always argue that “liberals” want to take away their guns. No…that’s never been the case. No one is suggesting you can’t own a hunting rifle, shotgun or pistol for sport or self-protection. But an AR-15-style rifle is a weapon of mass destruction. The meat left on a deer shot for ten seconds by a hunter with this weapon would fit in a three-quart pot.

For those who grew up watching Hollywood movies where getting shot meant slouching with a small red dot marking the bullet entry wound, allow me to explain how an AR-15 bullet works.

The bullet is roughly two inches long and leaves the muzzle somewhere between 1,100 and 2,600 feet per second.

The projectile hits human flesh with between 370 and 1,550 foot-pounds of force…and immediately begins tumbling…disintegrating in what can best be described as an explosion in the body of the victim. If you were shot with an AR-15-style weapon in the left hand…every bone in that arm including part of your shoulder…would be shattered.

On May 24, an 18-year-old gunman wielding an AR-15-style rifle killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, just west of San Antonio. A couple of the children had to be identified by their clothing and shoes…because the bullets had literally decapitated them.

Last week, at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, just north of Chicago, seven people – women, men and children – were killed and 30 injured by a 21-year-old gunman with an AR-15. One two-year-old was left an orphan. Others saw their family members die instantly…half a head blown away…a chest wound obliterating a woman’s entire heart.

As I write this, there have been 316 mass shootings in America in the first 187 days of 2022. A mass shooting is when four or more people – excluding the gunmen – are shot. At that rate, seven more mass shootings likely happened from the time I wrote this (last Thursday) and when you’re reading it (Monday). In contrast, not a single Canadian has died from an AR-15 in a mass shooting this year.

Americans should be outraged. But Republicans have fought gun control measures for decades. Republicans lie…saying that only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. Really, with more than 400 million guns…and more Americans dying every year…how come that bumper sticker logic doesn’t seem to work?

The first national gun control legislation in America in 30 years passed just two weeks ago…with just 14 out of 207 Republican House Members voting for it. More than twice as many Republican Senators voted against the bill’s passage than for it.

Americans…and by that I mean those who aren’t Republicans…it’s time to demand real action. Editors – with the consent of surviving relatives – start showing the carnage. Shocking? Well, Republican Right to Lifers fought abortions showing photographs of bloody fetuses.

Standing by and doing nothing about mass killings in America is more shocking, more horrendous and more disturbing than witnessing the truth. What does it take? Survivors who see these acts of violence firsthand but see their friends and family blown apart…do you think they want sensible gun control…or just more thoughts and prayers?

And as far as gun control legislation, until Americans get rid of AR-15s, gun control is just words on paper…pie in the sky…meaningless words. Meanwhile, Americans, get over your denial. The threat of horrendous shootings – sooner not later – is coming to your hometown.

Republicans – elected officials and voters – how much longer are you willing to trade American lives for dollars from gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association to stay in power? Don’t dwell on the obvious answer too long. After all, tomorrow’s another day…and another 1.7 mass shootings.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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