Q&A of the Day – Thoughts on dealing with the mass shooting epidemic
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry... These are four different responses to the weekend attacks in El Paso and Dayton that I think help illustrate various points as we weigh next steps as a country.
- Nothing is going to change until we bring morality and decency back into our country. Wrong is right and right is wrong these days. There are no moral absolutes! We blame guns yet it could be a plane or machete or homemade bomb or anything a probate Godless mind can think of. Washington is filled with divisive men and women that are just there for their own kingdom building and have no idea they work for us. Stop fighting and race baiting and get to work!
- Hi Brian, I suggest President Trump seek an executive order (if possible) or try to pass legislation that would fast track mass shooting cases, with the goal of having the perp sentenced within 30 days of the event. I.e. these cases would take priority over other cases in the system, with the goal of carrying out the sentence shortly after a verdict is reached. Getting the death penalty within 30 days of an event might serve as a greater deterrent than any gun legislation.
- Hi Brian,My wife called me this morning and asked me to thank you for your commentary & analysis on the gun violence issue. She really appreciated it! The interesting thing is in the past you could order a Thompson sub machine gun (fully automatic) from the Sears catalog & have it delivered directly to your house.
- Hi Brian, I liked that you pointed out all the variables we must look at when analyzing today’s violence.
Bottom Line: Yesterday I mentioned that the mood of the country in the wake of this weekend’s attacks, resembled to me, what the mood in Florida was after the attack at Stoneman Douglas. That something was about to change, and the question was what. Yesterday President Trump laid out the framework for a four-point plan that included considerations for social media accountability, video game and entertainment industry violence, better detection and treatment for mental health issues and a federal “Red Flag” risk protection policy. While we watch, and perhaps advocate for what we’d like to see change, or not as the case may be, it’s worth noting that 17 states, including Florida have “Red Flag” laws. It’s perhaps worth noting that Texas and Ohio, the states the attacks occurred in do not. It’s also worth mentioning that according to the FBI database, only 25% of mass murderers are from a medical perspective, mentally ill. That’s a reminder that there isn’t a silver bullet (no pun intended). It’s also why I laid out my own considered four-point plan that addresses gun control, hate, mental health and religion. In my view, based on two decades worth of research, there are a minimum of those four considerations that need to be accounted for in our society.
To the first listener, agreed – a lack of morality and decency is the single greatest issue we face in society. There is no more compelling argument for why guns aren’t new, mental health issues aren’t new, but the proliferation of mass murder is. Removing God, faith and any semblance of morality from our society is the premise of this issue to me.
To the second listener, expediting sentencing might help victims' families feel closure and a sense of justice quicker but I doubt it’d impact the issue meaningfully. It’s important not to attempt to rationalize the inherently irrational. These murderers don’t think like the rest of us and most end up dead without trial.
To the third listener, you illustrate a great point about how gun laws have changed, and we’ve responsibly balanced the right to bear arms with pragmatism. Automatic weapons were legal into the 80’s before President Reagan signed bi-partisan legislation to ban them. You’re also illustrating the point about how our society has negatively changed. During a time of legal automatic weapons, we didn’t have the mass killings we do with non-automatic weapons today.
To the fourth listener, thank you. I don’t expect everyone to agree with my conclusions, but I want you to be able to count on an analytical view of the issues. As I’ve always said, I establish the facts and go where they take me. There are plenty of times that I’m surprised where that may be. Pragmatism is needed here, just as it was in Florida last year, if we’re serious about meaningful reform.