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In the US, Violence Has Always Been the Answer
From guns to militarism, the national religion is the religion of us vs. them.
Jul 21, 2024
Every bullet fired into a crowd penetrates the national soul—or so it seems to me, as I continue to grapple emotionally with the Trump rally shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, which left one attendee murdered, several others wounded, and the shooter himself dead.
As with all such shootings, this goes beyond “motive” into a collective nethersphere of uncertainty. For God’s sake, what is life? Why is it so, shall we say, cheap? Why are we organized—politically, socially—primarily around its elimination? Why are guns so damn sacred... not to mention fighter jets, nuclear weapons, our annual military budget? Why do the following words make me cringe:
“We cannot—must not—go down this road in America, Violence has never been the answer.”
The power to obliterate opposition—the power to kill—has long been sacred, both collectively and personally.
This is U.S. President Joe Biden, blathering a heart-stabbing lie—also known as the thing most politicians mean the least when they say it—to clueless America in the wake of the latest mass shooting. We are deeply, deeply down this road! We have a trillion-dollar annual military budget and maintain around 750 military bases around the world. We are, under Joe’s watch, bleeding billions of dollars to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so Israel can inflict genocide on Palestine. Indeed, an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza on the same day as the Trump rally assassination attempt killed nearly 100 Palestinians.
“We cannot—must not—go down this road in America... ” Yeah, sure. This is the road we’ve chosen: the road to hell. The job most presidents have chosen, at least in my lifetime, has been that of public relations director in chief, softening our militarism with the platitudes of state.
As Phil Wilson writes at Common Dreams: “Until 1949, the federal agency responsible for the U.S. military was simply called The Department of War—a rather nondescript, generic title that tells us nothing about intent. But with the advent of the Cold War and the new mandate to unleash military might against leftist regimes in every corner of the globe, our military needed a brand new identity. In 1949, just in time for decades of war in Southeast Asia, we decided to call our military The Department of Defense. This made it clear that bombing, defoliating, and reducing civilian populations to ash thousands of miles from U.S. borders—in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—were acts of ‘defense.’”
Wilson also notes, cogently: “I have always suspected that the Republicans control the American narrative and the Democrats lip sync to the latest MAGA tunes.”
In other words, this is a “unified” nation, despite the anger, despite the hatred, volleying back and forth between the two primary political parties. The nation is unified in its militarism, unified in its refusal to acknowledge that war always comes home and that humanity must evolve beyond it or we will surely destroy ourselves.
America, guns—the two entities seem to be linked... religiously. This link very much predates our founding. Think of the Crusades. Think of the sheer emergence of empires across the planet throughout history. Our god is better than your god! The power to obliterate opposition—the power to kill—has long been sacred, both collectively and personally.
The irony of this is soul twisting, especially as it exists in present-day America, where personal weapon use, aka, self-defense, is ever more glorified, leading us into the current social structure. Guns are the essential symbol of freedom; they are increasingly available to almost everyone and legal to possess almost everywhere. Hence, the irony:
“Thanks to Wisconsin state law, guns will be allowed in the outer perimeter of the Republican National Convention even after Saturday’s assassination attempt against Donald Trump.”
Thus reports The New Republic, adding: “People can open-carry guns and conceal-carry with a permit in a less strict perimeter surrounding a ‘hard’ perimeter controlled by the Secret Service around the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee as the RNC begins tonight. A Milwaukee city ordinance, however, bans tennis balls and paintball guns in the outer perimeter. Effectively, an AR-15 can be carried within walking distance of the RNC hall, but a paintball gun can’t, and it’s all thanks to Wisconsin’s open-carry laws.”
Declaring the situation “utterly ridiculous,” Milwaukee alderman Robert Bauman put it this way to ABC News: “I mean, I could just picture this image of somebody coming up to the entry point with, you know, an AR-15 strapped over one shoulder, a long rifle over another, and two pistols in his belt, and the cops asking him, ‘You got any tennis balls?’”
Yeah, the irony! I definitely do not expect this matter to be resolved politically. Tougher and saner gun laws have been shot and killed, but it’s bigger than that anyway. The USA has adorned itself in military cammies. It has a holster and a six-gun on its belt. This is who we are, and we’re always on the lookout for enemies, which are everywhere (particularly at the southern border). The national religion is us vs. them—the simplest religion available.
And it’s also the most profitable.
Nonetheless, many, many Americans—many citizens of the world—are devoting their lives to the long, complex trek beyond the religion of guns and violence and militarism. Power is a matter of connection with the whole universe.
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'Thought It Was a Joke': Bullets Now For Sale in Vending Machines in 3 GOP-Led States
"In a country awash in guns and ammo, where guns are the leading cause of deaths for kids, we don't need to further normalize the sale and promotion of these products," an expert said.
Jul 10, 2024
A Texas-based company has developed vending machines that sell bullets and installed them at a handful of grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama, with plans for expansion into other states, according to news reports this week.
The machines, produced by American Rounds, based in the Dallas area, use artificial intelligence to verify the age of buyers, who must be 21 to purchase the shotgun, rifle, and handgun bullets on offer.
There are few federal regulations on the sale of ammunition, and only a small number of states have their own tougher laws.
The vending machines are "likely to stoke controversy," Newsweek reported, while Gizmodo called their spread a "questionable new trend." Social media users wrote that the idea of vending machines for bullets was "insane", "horrible," and "beyond sick."
"In some states, you can now walk into a grocery store and buy bullets from a vending machine as if you were ordering a candy bar or a soda," Gizmodo reported, though it explained that the process was "slightly more rigorous... than buying a Twix."
Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, expressed concern about the accessibility of the ammunition.
"In a country awash in guns and ammo, where guns are the leading cause of deaths for kids, we don't need to further normalize the sale and promotion of these products," Suplina told The Associated Press.
Milk, eggs and now bullets for sale in handful of US grocery stores with ammo vending machines https://t.co/wX5tGY7HM3
— Liz Szabo (@LizSzabo) July 10, 2024
The introduction of the vending machine comes as gun-control advocates increase their efforts to defeat the gun lobby. There were more than 500 shootings nationwide over the 4th of July weekend, according to Moms Demand Action.
Though Walmart, a major ammunition retailer, has put some restrictions on sales in the last ten years, thanks to public pressure that followed mass shootings, bullets remain widely available in the U.S.
"In most of the country it's harder to buy Sudafed than it is to buy ammunition," according to The Trace, which characterized federal law on ammunition sales as "next to nonexistent."
There were once stricter federal laws in place on ammunition sales but they were undone when Congress passed pro-gun legislation backed by the National Rifle Association in 1986.
One of the new vending machines was the source of controversy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama last week.
"I got some calls about ammunition being sold in grocery stores, vending machines," Tuscaloosa Councilor Kip Tyner said during a city council meeting on July 2, according to ABC 33/40. "I mean, I thought it was a lie. I thought it was a joke, but it's not."
The vending machine in question was removed from a Fresh Value supermarket in Tuscaloosa the next day. The store manager said that the machine was removed due to lack of sales.
The American Rounds machines can currently be found at four locations in Oklahoma, one in Alabama, and one in Texas. The company has plans to install a machine in Buena Vista, Colorado, and already has more than 200 installation requests from stores in nine states, CEO Grant Magers told Newsweek. "And that number is growing daily," he said.
American Rounds' website says that "the future of ammo sales is here."
In Alabama you can purchase ammo from vending machines
The machines in Fresh Value stores in Tuscaloosa and Pell City use facial recognition for age and ID verification to streamline the process of purchasing firearm ammo. #2A
Developed by @americanrounds pic.twitter.com/xmzEAFSpCF
— Steve Gruber (@stevegrubershow) July 6, 2024
There are no limits to how much ammunition a customer can buy, other than the machine running out of stock, Newsweek reported. American Rounds is targeting small towns where ammunition might not be readily available. The machines are always set up inside of stores, Magers said.
The process of making the purchase, including the use of facial recognition software to check against the ID being used, can take one minute and a half, Magers told the AP.
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'Truly Evil' Clarence Thomas Offers Defense of Guns for Domestic Abusers
"The Thomas dissent is only further proof that he is simply a threat to America," said the father of a mass shooting victim.
Jun 21, 2024
"Thank goodness. Also, Clarence Thomas is truly evil."
That's how one progressive pollster responded Friday to the U.S. Supreme Court's 8-1 ruling in United States v. Rahimi, which upheld a law prohibiting individuals subject to a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm.
Critics across the political spectrum called Thomas' lone dissent in the case "insane" and blasted the right-wing justice as "fucking awful," a "corrupt lunatic," and a "contemptible POS" who "continues to undermine the safety of women and disgrace the court."
Some pointed out that after Thomas was nominated to the court in 1991 by then-President George H. W. Bush, during the Senate confirmation process, Anita Hill accused the future justice of sexually harassing her. More recently, Thomas has faced demands for his recusal or even resignation because he took gifts from right-wing billionaires and declined to report them.
Journalist Matt Fuller highlighted a portion of Chief Justice John Roberts' majority opinion that describes various instances of Zackey Rahimi behaving violently with a weapon, including a December 2019 interaction with C.M., the mother of his child.
"C. M. attempted to leave, but Rahimi grabbed her by the wrist, dragged her back to his car, and shoved her in, causing her to strike her head against the dashboard," Roberts wrote. "When he realized that a bystander was watching the altercation, Rahimi paused to retrieve a gun from under the passenger seat. C. M. took advantage of the opportunity to escape. Rahimi fired as she fled, although it is unclear whether he was aiming at C. M. or the witness."
Amid expressions of relief that the court's other members joined Roberts' majority opinion—with several also writing concurring opinions—Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts said that "the Rahimi case should never have been taken up by SCOTUS. To even question whether domestic abusers should have access to guns shows just how extreme this court has become."
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was murdered in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, said that he was "glad to see the Supreme Court got it right" in Rahimi, compared with the 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
"This case only existed because of the horrible Bruen ruling, a decision written by Justice Thomas who was the lone dissent here," Guttenberg noted. "I am hoping that they cleaned up some of the Bruen issues with this case. The Thomas dissent is only further proof that he is simply a threat to America."
Bruen struck down New York state's restrictions on the concealed carry of firearms in public but had a broader effect on various gun control laws—which legal experts said could be further disrupted by the new decision. Slate's Mark Joseph Stern explained Friday that while "both the majority and several concurrences are attempting to narrow and refine Bruen," Thomas "says everybody else misunderstood his opinion" in the 2022 case.
Thomas wrote Friday that after Bruen, "this court's directive was clear: A firearm regulation that falls within the Second Amendment's plain text is unconstitutional unless it is consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. Not a single historical regulation justifies the statute at issue."
However, given the majority, Stern predicted that "A LOT of lower court decisions that interpreted Bruen as a maximalist cudgel against virtually all modern gun safety measures—and struck down a bunch of laws accordingly—are about to get vacated and remanded by the Supreme Court for reconsideration in light of Rahimi."
"This is a win for the gun safety movement and another loss for the gun lobby hellbent on putting lives in danger."
Gun control advocates cheered Friday's ruling—which overturned a decision from the far-right U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit—and what it could mean for future court battles.
"Today, we're celebrating that the Supreme Court ensured that the lives and safety of millions across the country will be protected over the desires of gun rights extremists. This is a win for the gun safety movement and another loss for the gun lobby hellbent on putting lives in danger," declared Moms Demand Action executive director Angela Ferrell-Zabala.
Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who has worked on gun violence prevention since surviving a 2011 shooting, said that "this is a win for women, children, and anyone who has experienced domestic abuse," and it "would not have been possible without the work of gun safety and domestic violence advocates across the country."
People for the American Way President Svante Myrick called out the "extreme, ultraconservative 5th Circuit" and stressed that while "we're glad" the justices "made a reasonable ruling" in Rahimi, "we can't lose sight of the fact that far-right majorities on the Supreme Court and a lower court set the stage for what could have been a disaster."
"In fact, the majority of the court made clear that they may well invalidate other gun safety rules under Bruen even after today's decision," he warned. "That's why we have to keep courts in mind when we go to the polls in November."
In the November election, Democratic President Joe Biden is set to face former Republican President Donald Trump. While Trump's three appointees to the high court sided with Roberts in Rahimi, they were also part of the majorities in Bruen and Garland v. Cargill, a ruling from last week that struck down the Trump administration's bump stock ban.
Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday that "while President Biden and I stand up to the gun lobby, Donald Trump bows down. Trump has made clear he believes Americans should 'get over' gun violence, and we cannot allow him to roll back commonsense protections or appoint the next generation of Supreme Court justices."
"This case is yet another reminder that some want to take our country back to a time when women were not treated as equal to men and were not allowed to vote—and husbands could subject their wives to physical violence without it being considered a crime," Harris added. "Trump is a threat to our freedoms and our safety, and we must defeat him in November."
The U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), by texting "START" to 88788, or through chat at thehotline.org. It offers 24/7, free, and confidential support. DomesticShelters.org has a list of global and national resources.
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