The Tree Of Liberty

 I mean, what more is there to say? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants schoolchildren and teachers. As Josh Marshall notes, the gun cult in this country is about having the power to kill a lot of people in a great hurry. Sure, the guy down the street with a gun locker full of AR-15s is not thinking about killing a lot of schoolchildren (I hope), but he's thinking he can save...something, Murican Fredumbs, I guess with his arsenal. He's powerful with a gun in his hand, and that feeling is real. If you've fired a gun, that feeling is one of power.

As we saw in Uvalde, there were cops who engaged the shooter BEFORE he went into the school. Three police officers shot at this guy before he went in and started slaughtering elementary kids, but since he was wearing body armor and carrying a weapon of war, he could blast right past them. Naturally, the gun fetishists are suggesting we arm teachers, but the lesson of Uvalde (which will blow right past them) is that there is no "good guy with a gun" solution to this fucking insanity. 

The other source of rage - and certainly that's the tidal wave in my Twitter feed right now - is that we have no illusions that anything, and I mean anything, will be done. I live a few minutes drive from Sandy Hook, so I know full well that there is nothing that will happen. 

The gun debate is therefore about power, brute, violent power. Gun fetishists feel that power when they hold a weapon capable of slaughtering people in a school, a supermarket, a church, a concert or an office park. Non-gun fetishists feel the powerlessness of knowing that even though we know for a certainty that gun restrictions will make us safer, nothing will be done.