Egging on the Unhinged

The heartening recovery of Gabrielle Giffords and her recent to decision to leave congress recalls last year's discussion -- pretty much the same discussion that follows each of these horrific developments -- about guns in the hands of the mentally incompetent. Various members of the chattering and political classes got plenty huffy over suggestions that the things they say were in any way connected to the acts of Jared Loughner, arguing that Loughner is in the grip of an indecipherable but politically-neutral mental landscape. And that much seems to be true. The shooting apparently wasn’t the direct result of the exhortations of some media shouter-hater, or of a general climate of incivility. So the shouter-haters are, it seems, off the hook. This time.

The problem: Yes, Loughner is unhinged, but it is exactly that group – the unhinged – who are most likely to come under the thrall of mass media types who characterize others as traitors and enemies of America, and who recommend “second-amendment remedies.” When the delusional hear those words, taking up arms might seem to them – or just one of them, but one is all it takes -- a perfectly reasonable response, just as taking up arms for other “reasons” seems reasonable to the Loughners of the world. What are the chances of that happening – of some wing-nut hearing “treason” and “enemy of America” as a call to arms? Well, there are 300 million people in the United States, and if just .05% of them are in that category, that’s well over a million people who could conceivably think it sensible or even imperative that they get a gun and kill a traitor.

One obvious remedy is for the ranters to shut up. Voluntarily. Pay no attention to their agonized cries of free speech infringement. No one – certainly no government – is trying to censor or muzzle them. The request is that they do the good thing: State the case for their beliefs without characterizing people with whom they disagree as dangerous enemies of right-thinking people, intent on bringing down the Republic – a characterization that is obviously inaccurate and, in the end, infantile. The fact that they say these things not out of conviction but for money undoubtedly makes this remedy a bit more difficult to swing, but one can hope. Maybe there’s a conscience in there somewhere.

Beyond that, and without getting into the ins and outs of firearms legislation, can there be any doubt that we have to find a way to keep the unhinged and guns separate? In a political cartoon by Steve Artley a gun store proprietor says to a prospective gun purchaser, “This pistol is capable of firing 9MM rounds at a rate of 20 rounds a second…do you feel competent to handle a weapon of this magnitude?” Buyer: “Gov’ment toothfairy immigrant applesauce grammar toilet brush.” Proprietor: “Sign here.”

It won’t be easy and we won’t always be successful. Different laws apply in different jurisdictions. For a variety of reasons – poor record-keeping, inaccessibility of records, health-status confidentiality – the mental health of a given individual is difficult to determine, waiting period or not. And the sellers of guns, despite their pious pronouncements to the contrary, don’t care.

But it has to happen.