Anton Chekhov’s playwriting rule is that if a gun appears in the first act, it must go off by the third. In today’s America — where any nut case can obtain military grade weapons — shots fly, tragedies abound and the curtains refuse to drop.
I turned over in my sleep to hear my spouse say, “It’s happened again.” As a light sleeper, she had quietly turned on NPR for BBC news. Our latest horror was a mass shooting in Las Vegas. The facts were sketchy and still coming in: Two dead, then 20; 100 wounded, then 200; now 50 dead. The tally finally climbed to 58 dead, 515 wounded.
I awoke Oct. 2 2017, but it could have been Jan. 8, 2011, in Tucson, Arizona; Dec. 12, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut; June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Florida; June 14, 2017, in Alexandria, Virginia; or Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas. In each case a powerful weapon was in the wrong hands, a killer’s hands.
The date we should worry about is the next one, and the place for the average mass murder (fewer than four dead) or the concert-sized version may be coming to a town or city near you.
The formula is foolproof. l) Choose automatic rifle or handgun; 2) Buy clips and ammo; 3) Pick out target; 4) Shoot thine enemy; 5) Compile list of the dead and wounded: A president, a congresswoman, teachers and children, music fans, a Congressman playing ball, concertgoers, churchgoers. Only in America, as the saying goes.
The National Rifle Association should step up to commission a civilian Purple Heart. Then, imitating the military, hand them out to survivors across the land. They and the gun makers they serve owe America a new badge of courage to officially honor repeated bloodshed! If shot dead, your family qualifies for one Old Glory and an apology: “Sorry for your troubles.”
When bad things happen to bad people it’s called poetic justice, which somewhat nastily argues that they had it coming.
I never did like the phrase, but it fits in the case of a Congress, which, despite murderous shots in its direction, keeps finding excuses for inaction. To put a 10-year sunset clause on its one attempt to rein in assault weapons in the 1990s says more about seriousness of intent than anything else. How many will vote for the gun silencer bill now before Congress?
As then-President Bill Clinton noted during the battle to control assault weapons in the mid-1990s, representatives who stood up for America willingly lost their seats to NRA- funded opponents. Thank God!
That 10-year moratorium saved many lives, but now the chickens are coming home to roost. America’s an upside-down country when the loudest most sensible voices on guns are not coming from our leaders in Congress or the White House. Instead, it’s late-night TV comics: Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Conan O’Brien, Trevor Noah and James Corden. Noah and Corden are foreign born. They must only wonder at America’s love for a soldier’s firepower in every yo-yo’s hands.
Yet, the Trump apologists and Fox News cohorts are forever Abbot and Costello doing “who’s on first.” Today’s politicians are quick to give thoughts and prayers, but dead slow regarding guns and ammunition.
Our U. S. Congress of elected men and women has become hostage to the money and vote-influencing power of the National Rifle Association. Company stocks and gun sales soar following mass murder. Sick!
Jack Kennedy’s book, “Profiles in Courage,” praised politicians who went against the grain and voted their conscience. Ah, there’s the rub, our votes-for-sale pols have abandoned their conscience for hard cash!
Sir Thomas More lost his head when he resisted his best friend, King Henry VIII. “Qui tacet consentire videtur:” silence gives consent. Saint Thomas listened to his conscience and valued character above cowardice.
Where are today’s political heroes? Are private jets and fine dining more important than their very souls? Many are on the take, thinking that tomorrow may never come.
Well, this time, what happened in Vegas is not staying there. Be silent and be damned, or become part of the solution and take power.
Tomorrow is here.
Williamsburg writer and poet Jim Cahillane writes a monthly column. He has a new poem in The Florence Poets Society’s latest book “Silkworm 10.” He can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.