Another week, another massacre. In fact, mass shootings occur on a daily basis in the US.
The death death toll in Oregon's campus shooting is apparently 10, though some news sources reported it as high as 15 in the confusing hours after the attack.
Twitter, Facebook, political blogs, editorial pages, politicians, and our TV and radio talk shows exploded with demands for gun control. That happens every time there's a tragedy like this new one, and the talk always fades.
The rate of mass shootings has tripled since 2011. That doesn't matter. It could quadruple. And 2015 has already seen 45 school shootings. But change is not coming. Even President Obama weighing in won't make a difference.
Gun control efforts are doomed--and not just because of the power of the NRA. Guns are so enmeshed in American history, so much a part of our cultural DNA, that there's never going to be truly meaningful gun control here. Advocates of gun control don't seem to understand that and don't seem to appreciate the lasting power of our founding national story.
Part of why we rebelled against the British was their attempt to take away our guns. In 1774, the British only had 2,000 troops in heavily-armed and seething Boston, and the British response was to take control of the powder house, which meant that Bostonians wouldn't be able to use their guns. The British also started searching for guns and ammunition without warrants. And to suppress a rebellion against their rule, the British began effectively embargoing exportation of guns and ammunition to the Colonies.
The very first battles at Lexington and Concord between Americans and the British took place because British troops were coming to seize an American arms cache. So guns are right there at the founding of our nation--they're present and central before we had a flag, a Declaration of Independence, a government, a national anthem, before we had anything that truly united us. Guns, and holding on to our guns.
If you don't understand that, you don't understand American history--and why repeated efforts at gun control have failed so miserably and will continue to fail no matter how much anguish and horror we suffer. Citing gun control in other countries like Australia is pointless, because no other country has our unique history with guns and what they mean to us. Tragedies like the one in Oregon will keep happening, and so will the calls for action--but we're stuck with our history and show no real signs of trying to escape its grasp.