How about, from now on, or at least until the specter of the Trump presidency ends (and we throw in a couple of extra years for our national psyche to recover from the short-term effects of his dark and cartoonish tenure), we just fly all flags at half-mast all the time. This won’t only save us time (as public massacres by gun violence continue unabated from sea to shining sea), but it’ll allow us to “man up” and collectively face the obvious fact that we are currently living through the lowest ebb in American life since public lynchings and racial segregation. And we agree not to raise the flags to full-mast until we pass sensible and effective gun laws that actually might put a dent in the epidemic of gun shootings we’ve improbably grown accustomed to.
And since I’m wishing for the improbable, how about I wish for the impossible? That we actually have a serious national conversation about repealing the 2nd Amendment since, after all, we don’t live in the 19th fucking century anymore. We don’t take away the guns you already have, goodness no (don’t worry, the helicopters overhead aren’t coming for you, they’re responding to another violent altercation involving guns down the street), but we stop selling guns to anyone who doesn’t have a license, who hasn’t passed an extensive back-ground check, and who has a history of violence.
But you and I know that’s never going to happen. Not in these gun-obsessed, Divided States. So settle in and get used to it, ladies and gents, because this is the Brave New World of a post-liberal America that bleeds in red, white, and blue all over the place.
And we thought the insane logic of “M.A.D.” was limited to nuclear weapons.