The Limits of Power
What President Obama said shortly after the massacre of 20 Connecticut school children was memorable: He promised he would do everything in his power to ensure such a thing never happened again. A year after the Newtown shootings it is clear what we should make of such announcements — nothing.
Obama wants to do something, but he can't. He's dependent on a Congress that has prevented him even from instituting a more comprehensive system of background checks for gun buyers. Banning the sale of semiautomatic assault rifles — the type used by the Newtown shooter — isn't even up for serious debate any longer.
An Inhuman Alliance
There will never be any tightening of lax American gun laws as long as the sinister alliance between gun manufacturers, their lobbyists and politicians is allowed to exist. This powerful alliance is an amalgam of cynicism, misanthropy and cowardice and has thus far proven to be highly resilient.
That's the lesson of Newtown. Not even the slaughter of 20 children between the ages of six and seven was enough to put a damper on the American gun fetish. Why should the next massacre — and there will surely be more to come — change anything?
Obama wants to do something, but he can't. He's dependent on a Congress that has prevented him even from instituting a more comprehensive system of background checks for gun buyers. Banning the sale of semiautomatic assault rifles — the type used by the Newtown shooter — isn't even up for serious debate any longer.
An Inhuman Alliance
There will never be any tightening of lax American gun laws as long as the sinister alliance between gun manufacturers, their lobbyists and politicians is allowed to exist. This powerful alliance is an amalgam of cynicism, misanthropy and cowardice and has thus far proven to be highly resilient.
That's the lesson of Newtown. Not even the slaughter of 20 children between the ages of six and seven was enough to put a damper on the American gun fetish. Why should the next massacre — and there will surely be more to come — change anything?
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