Bill Straub: Another day, yet another senseless slaughter … and the beat goes on

WASHINGTON – Frankly, I gave up on Congress addressing the nation’s barely existent gun control laws about four years ago when some monster marched into the Sandy Hook School in Newtown, CT, and mercilessly gunned down 27 people – including 20 children.

Twenty kids, mind you.

Finally, lawmakers simply must act, supporters of rationale gun restrictions thought – an opportunity to actually save lives in wake of an unspeakable horror.

That’s the sound of crickets you hear.

Lawmakers sat on their hands. Did nothing. Hardly acted like anything happened. Oh, they offered prayers and thoughts, of course – that and about $2.75 will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Pretty soon they forgot about the entire, terrible incident and went about the business of raising money from outfits like the National Rifle Association to assure their re-elections. Time to move on.

Nope, 20 dead kids, many as young as six, weren’t enough to move Congress off the schneid. How many would it take, some wondered – 40? 50? A couple hundred? What if they were lined up along an open pit on national television and gunned down like the Nazis used to do? Would that help?

So now we come to Orlando and The Pulse nightclub where 49 patrons lost their lives at the hands of some misfit wielding an assault weapon. And you can bet, ultimately, the response will be about the same. Prayers and thoughts.

“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Our Wonder Boy, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewis County, reacted, as expected, in his famously obtuse fashion, essentially guffawing over all those anti-gun know-nothings who waste so much time looking for ways to save people’s lives.

The Whiz Kid wearily dismisses suggestions that it might be a good idea to keep firearms out of the hands of those on the no-fly list, insisting that it “isn’t accurate… nor is it compiled in a way that would make it constitutional to deprive someone of their basic rights merely because they (or someone who shares their name) appear on the list.’’

Of course if someone is mistakenly placed on the no-fly list that person should have some form of redress, thus dismissing any notion that anyone is being deprived of his or her “basic rights’’ to carry a gun around so they can blast away at whatever animate or inanimate object they please. More than likely they are on the list for a reason. It would seem the simple, common sense approach would be to place a hold on the purchase of a massive killing machine until the dispute can be sorted out.

Individuals who are convicted felons, domestic abusers, those with specific kinds of mental health issues and others already are barred from purchasing guns. It’s insane to permit someone prohibited from stepping on a domestic air flight to be able to do so.

Massie also noted – accurately – that the Orlando killer, one Omar Mateen, was not included on the no-fly list, refusing to understand that, while it’s much too late to address the Orlando tragedy, emerging situations require forward thinking to keep firearms out of the mitts of potentially dangerous figures hereinafter, those on the no-fly list being among them.

But here’s the kicker:

“What could have prevented this tragedy? How about eliminating gun free zones where security is inadequate to protect law abiding citizens who are otherwise capable, willing, and endowed (by their Creator with the right) to defend themselves.’’

Ah, yes, Wonder Boy’s effort to repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. Let’s imagine this little scenario:

“Little Bobby, hurry or you’ll miss the school bus. Here’s your Sesame Street lunch box, honey. You have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, a fruity drink and, of course, I reloaded your Glock 17. The box may be a little heavy so use both hands. And remember — watch the kick on the Glock, it’s a lulu.’’

What a jamoke the voters of the 4th Congressional District have sent to Washington to represent their interests these past four years. And they’re about to spring that joke on an unsuspecting nation yet again. To quote Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, “Sad.’’

Massie dances like Fred Astaire around the real gun control issue confronting the conscience of the nation – banning semi-automatic weapons like the one Mateen used to mow people down like so many blades of grass.

It can, and has, been done. The Tommy gun, Al Capone’s weapon of choice, was all but banned for civilian possession under the National Firearms Act of 1934. All machine guns were banned under the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act of 1986. Those laws remain on the books.

Congress, under President Bill Clinton, even passed the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act in 1994, prohibiting the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms that have come to be known as assault weapons. But that law expired in 1994 and the Republican-controlled 109th Congress, in its infinite wisdom, rejected pleas for reauthorization, leading to the situation we face today.

The weapon used by Mateen – a Sig Sauer MCX – was not on the banned assault weapons list because it didn’t hit the market until 2015. It is known popularly as the Black Mamba, after a venomous snake from sub-Saharan Africa renowned as an ambush predator. While the MCX is semi-automatic it has a military-spec trigger and a magazine capacity of 30 rounds. Experts acknowledge it is capable of firing off 45 rounds a minute.

The MCX was developed at the request of the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command, making it a military-grade weapon. The Sig Sauer folks proudly promote it as “an innovative weapon system built around a battle-proven core.”

Sig Sauer solemnly added that the MCX “accepts a broad array of accessories, enabling you to build a complete weapon system for any scenario or environment.”

And just about any moron with a grudge can visit your local arms dealer and purchase one on the spot.

The poor souls dancing the night away at The Pulse never stood a chance.

This is the type of weapon we’re allowing out on our streets.

Believe it or not, it could have been worse. For whatever reason Mateen passed on the more conventional AR-15 which was, indeed, one of those banned under the 1994 law. It is the civilian version of the military’s M-16 rifle.

The AR-15 is your common, ordinary every day, mass killing weapon for the discriminating murderer. It was expertly employed at Sandy Hook. It also was used during the slaughter of 12 in an Aurora, CO, movie theater in July 2012, at a holiday party for health department workers in San Bernardino, CA, where 14 people went pfffft in December 2015 and another 10 went down for the count at Umpqua College in Oregon in October 2015.

And the beat goes on. Only this time the guns “keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.’’

Don’t tell anybody but there’s a dirty little secret about the AR-15 – it can be converted from a semi-automatic to essentially an automatic rifle – a machine gun in actuality – in a matter of minutes with no gunsmith required. Quick and easy. An outfit called Slide Fire Solutions has developed what is referred to as a bump fire stock – perfectly legal – allowing the AR-15 to reportedly unleash 100 rounds, in seven seconds – more than twice as many rounds as Mateen’s MCX could fire off in a minute.

What fun. And it works on your AK-47 too. Is this a great country or what?

So what will it take, folks? How much evidence do we need? How many more need to perish in the nation’s night clubs? Schools? Movie theaters? These are military-grade weapons intended for use in various war-torn spots, not the streets of Orlando, a few miles from Disney World.

These weapons have gotta go. Even Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville, who has taken a few rhetorical hits in this column over the past few months, is now saying he is open to suggestions from experts on legislation that could address the gun problem.

McConnell told Newsweek, “Nobody wants terrorists to have firearms.”

Good for him. It’s unlikely McConnell will tread as far as necessary – or that the GOP Congress will actually do anything – but it’s a start.

Madness, folks. Madness.

Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.