Dark night rising

Photo: Barry Gutierrez/AP

It was impossible not to think of the Denver shootings as I attended the new Batman movie at the local cinema tonight. This latest random mass murder could have been scripted in the film itself, though it would have been the work of a cardboard-evil mastermind rather than just an unhinged student. While I'm a fan of the work of director Christopher Nolan, this latest effort was turgid twaddle. The plot was so predictable I left after an hour of tedious violence, with the hero in a bit of pickle but assured that the good guys would "win" in the end. 

I came away thinking it was folly to believe there is no connection between the film and the murders.  Guns and the power they confer are at the heart of the Batman movies – as they are at the heart of most Hollywood blockbusters. Guns are the ultimate deus ex machina plot device. Whoever is holding one, calls the shots. The drama moves towards the pivot where either the tables are turned or someone is shot. In the Dark Knight Rises, guns were everywhere and only “superhero” powers can overcome them. When the real murderer went loose in the cinema, many in the dark assumed the noise was from the film and paid no attention.  James Holmes called himself The Joker for the stock Batman villain. He painted his hair red and used tear gas before opening fire.  There was no superhero to stop him.

The film producers’ coy reaction showed they are part of the problem. Warner Bros said they took “the unprecedented step” of delaying revealing “eagerly awaited weekend box office figures for Dark Knight out of respect for the victims and their families."  How the box office news would affect grieving families is beyond immediate comprehension, though there was no sign any of the record takings would be used to compensate victims or be put to a campaign against weapons.

America’s “foremost defender of Second Amendment rights”, the National Rifle Association were as quick as I was to blame the culture.  The problem was caused, they said, by “violent imaginary movies", many of them like Batman having, perish the thought, “absolutely no patriotic value”.  As NRA’s Wayne Lapierre deadpanned when wheeled out to defend their position, "Guns don't kill -Batman kills.  Had someone in the audience been armed, this tragedy could have been averted."  Multiplexes, were according to Lapierre, death traps.  Lapierre may have preferred a good old fashioned saloon shoot out where everyone could have taken a pop at the dark knight.

Lapierre is of course right on the point of violent movies, though somewhat muddled about multiplexes and patriotism.  The culture promotes death and violence, as do the movies of many other countries  But there is one big difference about America compared to nearly every other first world country. There, guns and weapons are as easy to get as movie tickets and popcorn.  The major reason the unhinged Holmes had no difficulty in acting out his fantasy was because he was able to accumulate a formidable collection of weapons and 6,000 rounds of ammunition.  None of the journalists baying at Lapierre for answers picked him up on his glib lie: Guns do kill and the tragedy would have been averted had no one in the audience been armed.

As the New York Daily News said, Holmes did not act alone. Lapierre was at his side as were Obama and Romney both cowed into silence over gun control for fear of unleashing NRA’s mighty political wrath.  “(Also) Standing at Holmes’ side as he murdered 12 and wounded 59, were the millions of zealots who would sooner see blood flow and lives end than have to check a box on a gun registration form,” the Daily News said. It wasn’t just about the occasional newsworthy massacre but the “day-to-to-day mayhem of street-crime shootings, responsible for more deaths than all the mass carnage combined, (that only) makes it to the police blotter, the courts, the newspapers, the emergency rooms and the cemeteries.” 

The Daily Beast's Adam Winkler said mass shootings don’t lead to gun control. Colorado has some of the weakest laws in the land despite the Columbine High School massacre 13 years ago. Winkler said the radicalisation of the NRA in the 1970s stalled American gun reform. He quotes Bill Clinton as saying the Brady Bill (named for Reagan aide shot in the 1981 assassination attempt) cost the Democrats the control of the House of Reps in 1994 and neither party has mounted any gun control since, despite America having five murders for every 100,000 people. 

The NRA vigorously defends its stance at every opportunity against every perceived threat to its clout. This week they attacked Obama signing a UN Arms Treaties because they might “trample our Constitutional right to bear arms.”  The 18^th century need for a well-regulated militia remains a holy cow despite bearing arms now sounding as ridiculous as arming bears.  America deserves a referendum on the “right” but in the unlikely event it happened, the majority of Batman watchers across the land would probably vote against change. Violence is endemic in the culture. Unless one of the dead in Colorado had a well-connected senior operative in the Republican Party for a relative, this latest massacre won’t change anything after all the hand-wringing is completed. Superheroes are as thin on the ground in Washington as they are in Aurora.

NRA: guns, money and influence

The National Rifle Association, America’s peak gun lobby, issued a brief statement yesterday in the wake of the Virginia Tech University shootings which claimed the lives of 33 people in Blacksburg, Virginia. The NRA said it “joins the entire country in expressing our deepest condolences to the families of Virginia Tech University and everyone else affected by this horrible tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families. We will not have further comment until all the facts are known.” The statement was issued as members gather for their 2007 annual meetings being held in St. Louis, Missouri.

Another gun lobby group Gun Owners of America (GOA) were not so tight-lipped. They have blamed the shooting on the laws that prevent guns be taken into school grounds. GOA Executive Director, Larry Pratt said "The latest school shooting demands an immediate end to the gun-free zone law which leaves the nation's schools at the mercy of madmen. It is irresponsibly dangerous to tell citizens that they may not have guns at schools. The Virginia Tech shooting shows that killers have no concern about a gun ban when murder is in their hearts."

The 23 year old killer Cho Seung-hui is a South Korean national and legally resident alien who lived in Centreville, Va who last renewed his green card in 1993. Virginia gun laws are lax. They allow legal permanent resident aliens to purchase firearms but must provide additional identification to prove they are residents of the state. The law prevents students or visitors from carrying guns onto the grounds of public and private K-12 schools. But the Virginia code is silent on subject of guns and public colleges.

Most public schools and colleges in the state ban or restrict guns on campus. But the root of that authority is murky and some are seeking to get that law changed. David Briggman, a former police officer is fighting to challenge state colleges' authority to enact tougher gun restrictions than the state. He forced Blue Ridge Community College to allow him to carry a gun onto campus while a student. He also sued James Madison University over its ban on concealed weapons even among permit holders. "It's extremely easy to challenge university policy by looking at ... whether they are given the statutory authority to regulate firearms on campus, and of course, they're not, “he said.

Gun owners hold sacred the Second Amendment to the US constitution. The text of the amendment reads “"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Despite extensive discussion and much legislative action, there is no definitive resolution by the courts of just what right the Second Amendment protects. It is interpreted variously by 80 million gun owners as enshrining an individual right, and by advocates of gun control as referring to a right of the people to arm themselves only when needed for communal defence. Most Americans lean towards the first interpretation. An NRA poll found 89% of Americans believe they have a right to own a gun.

The NRA was founded in 1871 in New York State. The group formed over concerns about poor marksmanship skills of the Union Army in the Civil War. The primary goal of the association would be to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis”. Its power began to grow after 1903 when NRA Secretary Albert S. Jones urged the establishment of rifle clubs at all major colleges, universities and military academies. Their magazine, The American Rifleman, kept members abreast of new firearms bills. It formed a Legislative Affairs Division in 1934 which mailed out legislative facts and analyses to members. In 1975, recognizing the critical need for more direct action, NRA formed the Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA).

NRA-ILA is the lobbyist arm of NRA. It is a powerful body. The NRA has 4.3 million members and a $180m annual budget. It is mostly associated with the Republican Party. It has disproportionate influence over several rural swing states, such as West Virginia and Tennessee, which were crucial to George W. Bush's narrow victory in 2000. Before that election, the NRA boasted that it was so close to Bush that it would "work out of [his] office". Addressing an NRA convention after the election, NRA vice president Wayne LaPierre told members: "You are why Al Gore isn't in the White House".

Currently meeting in St Louis, LaPierre again addressed the annual convention. This time he urged delegates to prepare for "the storm that lies ahead". LaPierre was referring to the threat posed by an anti gun-lobby Democratic-controlled Congress as well as the likelihood they would also win the presidency next year. "Today there is not one firearm owner whose freedom is secure,” he said. He could not have imagined the storm was barely two days away.

Opinion polls are now consistently showing a majority of Americans support stricter controls. That is likely to rise further following the Virginia shooting. But many doubt if the Democrats will take meaningful action on gun control. John Conyers, chairman of the House judiciary committee, pledged before November's election that he would not "support or forward to the House any legislation to ban handguns". Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, favoured an election strategy which allowed candidates in rural states to adopt pro-gun positions leaving those in urban areas to push for restrictions. As a result many rural gun friendly Democrats were elected.

Democrat New Mexico Governor and possible presidential hopeful Bill Richardson is seen by GOA as the “most gun-friendly candidate from either party at this point”. But even they worry that Richardson will take the party line on guns and his “greater love for his party allies might prove to greatly disappoint those pro-gun voters who want to see him in the Oval Office”.