The overwhelming majority of Americans, including gun owners, are sick of gun violence. They support gun control of various kinds. After the massacre of 20 elementary school children and six educators at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut, people thought that Congress would act to ban assault weapons or to demand restrictions on guns. But nothing happened. After the massacre at the Majory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, people thought that Congress would act to stem the slaughter. But nothing happened.
Now a sort of public apathy has descended, even after the massacre of ten shoppers at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, even after the slaughter of fourth-grade children and their teachers in Uvalde, Texas.
Nothing will happen, the public believes, because the Republican Party is owned by the National Rifle Association, which contributes about $70 million per election cycle to its allies.
Nothing will happen, they say, because there are 400 million+ guns already in circulation, and no amount of gun control will eliminate them.
But there is a solution. It is breathtakingly simple. It depends on the boldness of one person.
That one person actually could be any one of about fifty people with the resources to carry out the plan.
But for the sake of argument, let me arbitrarily choose just one of them: McKenzie Scott. (It might just as well be Michael Bloomberg or some other billionaire.)
Ms. Scott, you are a person who has shown by your frequent gifts to worthy organizations that you care about the future of our nation. You care about people. You care about justice and kindness and vulnerable people. You say you want to keep giving your money away until it is all gone.
Here is a worthy enterprise.
First, replace the NRA as the most important donor to the Republican Party. But only on the condition that those who take your money agree to strong and comprehensive gun control. Offer millions of dollars to every Republican member of Congress who agrees to vote to ban the purchase and criminalize the sale of military weapons to civilians. If the NRA controls fifty Republican senators with only $70 million, surely you could spend $500 million and buy most of their votes, which would save thousands of lives every year. A good deal for America at a bargain price for you. Even $1 billion a year might break the NRA stranglehold on the Republicans in Congress. You don’t need to win the votes of 50 Republican senators. Fifteen would be enough to break a filibuster.
Second, start a national buyback program for the most dangerous weapons: AR15s, Bushmasters, automatic and semi-automatic weapons and any other military-grade weapons. Be generous. Buy them for 10 times the purchase price. Buy other types of weapons, other than hunting rifles and single-shot pistols. Buy up as many of the 400 million guns in private possession as possible. Destroy them.
Third, use your vast resources to fund gun control lobbyists in every state that does not have gun control and make the same offer to pro-gun state legislators that you do to members of Congress. Buy their votes.
If this sounds cynical, who cares?
McKenzie Scott (or Michael Bloomberg) could spend a billion or two and dramatically reduce gun violence, simply by buying the votes of Republicans and buying back unusually lethal weapons. Their assets have a way of growing no matter how much they spend. When you have $40-65 billion, spending a billion or so to eliminate America’s gun culture is a bargain.
Any one of these billionaires could lift the curse of gun violence from our land, with the expenditure of one or two of their many billions.
This would be a great gift to America.
If this plan doesn’t work, then here is an alternative: organize nationally for a complete and total ban on the sale or possession of assault weapons, and any guns other than hunting rifles and single-shot handguns. Civilians should not be able to purchase military-grade weapons. We had a ban on the purchase or sale of assault weapons from 1994 to 2004. It included many exemptions. It did not buy back the weapons already purchased. We should do it again with far more ambitious goals.
My first choice: ban and criminalize the purchase, sale, or manufacture of assault weapons. Let the hunters keep their single-shot guns. No one should own a military grade weapon but the military. The Founders did not write the Second Amendment to protect killers but to protect a well-organized militia.
No more massacres in schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, shopping centers, music festivals or anywhere else.
The massacres will increase until the
Republican Party is dead and gone.
They have cast their fate in lead.
They have left no other course.
It tears at my heart to have no course other than to agree.
I am grateful to Diane for a valuable post on a matter of utmost importance. I’m not apathetic, but perhaps I am counterproductively cynical. For instance, were Mackenzie Scott or Mike Bloomberg or Oprah were to buy back AR-15s at 10 times the purchase price, all I can foresee is that many recipients of this largesse would immediately buy 10 more AR-15s, then sell some of them back and give some to their like-sick-minded anti-life associates.
Bill, integral to the buyback plan is that the purchased Congressmen have criminalized the production of assault weapons. You can’t sell one to the buyback program, then buy another.
Thank you, Diane. Excess cynicism has made me a poor reader. I promise to reform myself.
Don’t worry about it.
Thank you once more. I couldn’t hope for a wiser and nicer online surrogate Jewish mother. (I would have used “kinder” instead of “nicer” had Bush the Legitimately Elected’s “kinder and gentler” not butted into my interior monologue.)
Thank you, my son.
The massacres will increase until the mass of curs is gone.
Mass of cur-relation
A curious correlation
A kind of cur-relation
Between the massacres
And current mass of curs
Should be “cur-ious correlation”
Reading this gave me chills. It could work. Grassroots change is important – but takes a long time.
If a Scott or Bloomberg did something like this…. coupled with other social reforms that are also needed (mental health programming…. and parent education and policies around violent media access – including violent video games that some children are playing at a very young age – and it does impact vulnerable minds) – we could really turn the tide.
“…coupled with other social reforms that are also needed…” YES–it is essential to use multiple approaches.
This is “breathtakingly” simple.
One chosen “it’s the guns, stupid” candidate getting elected provides cover for others.
The offer alone garners media attention & the right-winger spewing hate has to label it and draw attention to it.
& there’s ANOTHER zillionaire out there – the U.S. Government and millionaire State Governments. USE the Second Amendment right back at ’em.
Even right-wingers seem to be ok with government covid-relief checks spread everywhere.
Do it one more time! Picture the billboards.
The Second Amendment Needs You!
Keep the STATE MILITIA’S FULLY ARMED!
Sell them your Weapons
No Question Asked – No Names Disclosed.
Your State Militia Needs You!
Priceless. Thank you.
Good morning Diane and everyone,
Diane, your plan is exactly what I was thinking!!! Good stuff.
Although, I was thinking Oprah for my billionaire!!!! But let’s not quibble on the billionaires! 🙂
Billionaires aren’t philanthropists. They expect money and power in exchange for a grant. So, to get a billionaire to fund gun control, Republicans would have to be required, in exchange for the donations, to spend time using online learning programs and surrendering valuable personal data. That would actually be good because he legislators would discover the stupidity of Pearsonalized learning, of themselves, or of both.
My post was part real, part satire. It lays bare the transactional nature of support for the NRA. If they pay for votes, outbid them.
Yes, my comment was also part real, part satire. It lays bare the transactional nature of education technology. It seems there is a transactional nature of everything today.
The feeling of machine gun = power is supported by Hollywood and is also a big problem. That’s the message and it’s heard loud and clear.
Diane “If the NRA controls fifty Republican senators with only $70 million, surely you could spend $500 million and buy most of their votes, which would save thousands of lives every year.”
The situation in Texas, and those before it, PLUS your note expose the utter corruption of the U.S. Congress and what we have lived under for a long time . . . while THINKING we actually live in a democracy and that our representatives work for The People . . . when, in fact, their “constituents” are not the voters but only the rich who, in turn, buy all the propaganda they need and spread it around in all the right places to scam the voters into voting for them, over and over again. Someone said the American People are dithering. But the people are at work, taking care of their kids, paying their bills, and trusting these people to do what is best for them and their children.
Talk about a RIGGED SYSTEM.
BTW, Mitt Romney apparently is one of the richest people in the country BUT also receives from the National Rifle Association more contributions than anyone else in Congress. What’s up with THAT? CBK (Below from Public Citizen and Newsweek)
Senators bankrolled by the NRA:
Mitt Romney: $13,648,000
Richard Burr: $6,987,000
Roy Blunt: $4,556,000
Thom Tillis: $4,421,000
Marco Rubio: $3,303,000
Joni Ernst: $3,125,000
Josh Hawley: $1,392,000
Mitch McConnell: $1,267,000
Ted Cruz: $176,000
It must have cost more to buy 1 Mitt Romney. Hawley, McConnell and Cruz come cheap.
Everybody seems to ignore the comment from ? that Mitt Romney received the majority of that money during his presidential campaign. The NRA was more interested in defeating Obama than electing Romney. He is not where I would like him to be on gun control, but he is not the NRA’s evil wizard.
It was from me. I can’t link to the article on my phone, but it’s from the Salt Lake Tribune–Salt Lake’s liberal paper and hardly a fan of Romney. He has taken $0 in the last 8 years from the NRA..
The article is still on the Tribune’s main page: sltrib.com
Threatened I hesitate to think that there may be hope, but I appreciate the update and clarification on Romney and the NRA contributions. CBK.
Thanks TOW.
I humbly submit a friendly amendment: Following “utter corruption of,” replace “the U.S. Congress” by “almost all Republicans in Congress and a couple of Democrats.” Let’s name the corrupt accessories to mass murder by their label on our ballots.
Mitt Romney: $13,648,000
Josh Hawley: $1,392,000
Mitch McConnell: $1,267,000
Ted Cruz: $176,000
Maybe the last three were paid so little because even the NRA is concerned about their intelligence and sanity.
Cruz and Hawley are Harvard Law alumni, as is Tom Cotton. Maybe Howard Gardner can come up with a heretofore unconceptualized form of intelligence to be called evil intelligence.
My comment went to moderation. But do google NRA Congressional Contributions Newsweek and Public Citizen. CBK
I found your comment in spam. I get a deluge of spam every day, some selling product, some offering porn, some just nonsense. Digging in there is akin to looking through a sewer.
Diane Thank you for reposting. What’s wrong with this picture:
Romney is so rich, and yet let’s himself be led around by the nose by the NRA contributions? Not too long ago, apparently he was having an elevator installed in his garage, or something like that.
The point is, if he’s so rich, what are the OTHER power threads at work here behind the scenes? OR is it just the off-the-cliff endlessness of greed? And the NRA itself is just waiting for this whole thing to “blow over,” as it always does. CBK
So I came on my computer to link this article. No small feat–my computer is SLOW. Read this article. I am not a fan of Romney–I didn’t even vote for him–but it is FALSE that he has gotten a bunch of money from the NRA, especially in the last decade. Mike Lee, Utah’s senior senator (unfortunately) is up for reelection this year and deserves FAR more ire and donations against him that Romney. Please read this article instead of some stupid meme that is wrong:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2022/05/26/mitt-romney-received-nra/
Thank you for this SLTRIB article–a valuable reminder that many things are more complicated than they seem at first glance.
No one forced Romney to accept money for his Presidential campaign from the NRA.
An extra 14 million in a multi billion dollar campaign is a drop in the bucket. The money itself was certainly not critical to getting elected.
Romney could easily have declined it but he did not.
And he didn’t because he (or the person in charge of his campaign) either had no problem taking money from the NRA (because they share the philosophy) OR because they knew that it would offend many potential Romney voters to effectively snub the NRA.
Neither possibility paints Romney in a particularly good light. If he actually opposes NRA policies , he should not accept money from them, regardless of what office he is running for.
Maybe it’s time to stop giving these people a pass.
Romney also gets a pass with many Democrats on all his votes for Trump policies simply because he voted to impeach Trump, which ANYONE with a single shred of integrity, honesty and decency would have done.
But Romney is thought of as some kind of “hero” because of it.Romney is a very typical Utah Republican. He’s a two-faced fake.
True. And I’m not saying Romney is a good guy here, although he is far better than Mike Lee. I just wanted to give some context
Why in a Democracy does it take those
with money to change politics?
I prefer to end Citizens United that would
put majority control over politicians and not
extend big money influence.
Stephen, I agree. If voters focused on gun control, everyone who takes NRA money would be voted out of office. Watch how quickly the NRA-owned assets change the subject to inflation, baby formula, gas prices. Not guns. Not children murdered in their classrooms.
Why one or the other? Why not BOTH?
Purchaser licensing is a tool for reducing gun violence, assuming we can’t buy our way out of it. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/policies-that-reduce-gun-violence-firearm-purchaser-licensi
Steven Loughlin, a lot of politicians try to buy the votes of people with student loan debts, so why are you not going after them with the same level of enthusiasm?
Diane Ravitch, for all of the weeping about bans on abortion being a violation of bodily autonomy, I would not mind a photo with dead children with the caption “My body, my choice” and then these hypocrites who demand the right to bodily autonomy for aborting a fetus are forced to see the irony in their sentiments. Can you not see that for what it is?
Greg H,
Have you noticed that Iowa just banned abortion not long after they cut the availability of free food for poor kids?
Love the fetus, hate the child.
That’s you.
Rep. Carolyn B, Maloney (D-N.Y.) contacted five gunmakers on TH 5/26 requesting information regarding the manufacturing, sale and marketing of deadly weapons used in mass shootings.
Maloney contacted Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co.
She Demanded the gross revenue and profit sales from semiautomatic rifles/AR-15 style guns. Also, the Yearly spending on advertising/marketing of same weapon types.
Asked for an accounting on how much was spent on fed+state lobbying.
And how much $$ was given to the NRA.
They were all given a 6/2 Response Deadline!
WAPO
Will they respond?
Not if the House Democratic majority allows gun industry heroes Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan and others to define for themselves whether or not they are required to obey subpoenas and testify.
Maybe, Rep. Maloney should ask BlackRock those questions. Axios reported that the largest shareholder in the largest U.S. gunmakers is BlackRock.
Great suggestion and I hope they do it, but Scott and Bloomberg would have to start wearing body armor, only use armored vehicles and aircraft to travel anywhere, and increase their security details with more heavily armed guards since they’d become targets for the mentally deranged and dangerous lunatics on the extreme right.
Marjorie Taylor Green might even publicly offer a reward to anyone that assassinates them. Heck, she might even attempt it herself or at least brag to her voters that she wants to do it.
I have become cynical about the possibilities for ending this national disease. Like all the episodes mentioned here we see Moscow Mitch employing his rope-a-dope strategy. He makes noises about finding a bipartisan agreement while he waits for the issue to cool down. Eventually, he will regretfully not be able to find agreement with intransigent Democrats and the mayhem will roll on.
I hope I am wrong but I see a broken democracy where majority opinions are ignored; like abortion rites, child tax credits, climate change, etc. November may be our last opportunity to select a more functional democracy working to advance human rites not sunder them. We must elect people who respect the rule of law and democratic governance.
The way I see it…the first and most important change is to change the American mentality as regards weapons and violence – and this will take several generations.
One law, like the ban on assault weapons in 1994, will change the American mentality. People want gun control. Goons like Cruz don’t.
peskyvera writes” “The way I see it…the first and most important change is to change the American mentality as regards weapons and violence – and this will take several generations.”
If that’s the case, then we can see WHY we need good policy (and authentic policymakers) in a democracy . . . to mediate the way we live in real time and space between (1) the real politic of the present and (2) how we know things could and should be. If everyone already had that mentality, we wouldn’t need policies or laws. It’s like Goldilocks, however, neither too much nor too little is “just right.”
BTW, your note actually reflects the basic structure of our Constitutional Democracy as DYNAMIC that is, solid, but also open to change. CBK
I’m not confident that relying on the wisdom of billionaires is the way to go.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that it is NOT the way to go.
Billionaires distort democracy when they give their millions or billions to politicians. This is true regardless of which politicians they give money to.
If we are relying on billionaires to save us from ourselves, I’d say we are too far gone to save.
SomeDAM Diane clarified (and I am following her lead) that the original note was written with tongue in cheek. But yours is exactly the point.
If we are already involved in bribery, and we just up the ante, then we are still involved in corruption. That would just be another way to secure oligarchy and invite authoritarianism/ totalitarianism. CBK
Not sure why that appeared there. It was a reply to the main post, not to any comment.
Anyone who actually DOEs believe the billionaires will be our saviors should ask themselves this:
Why are the billionaires all madly trying to get off the planet ? — like there is no tomorrow?
Maybe they see something the rest of us are missing.
In the giving p!edge, billionaires like Gates and Buffet agree to give away all their billions on or before their death.
My guess is they will do it when they are safely in their rocketships waving goodbye.
Like cigarettes and drunk driving? It didn’t take “several generations” to radically change attitudes about both. If your point is the change will not happen overnight, that’s true, but that does not mean the people who are already dedicated to changing the narrative should give up. As a matter of fact, a majority of Americans already support gun control. I hope it doesn’t take generations to get the legislators bought and paid for by the NRA out of office.
Diane My comment to peskyvera went to moderation (again). I’ll post it again and see if it shows up this time. CBK
Diane Same problem with moderation . . . . CBK
Try splitting the comment in half, making 2 comments? Who can figure out the mysteries of Word Press? The comment will eventually show up, thanks to the efforts of Diane.
Joe Thanks, but I think there is something “off” at WordPress. Somehow, they have it that I am not me, so to speak; and I have to re-enter the program to verify EACH TIME I try to post as well as redoing the “notification” checks.
I never had that problem before; and I don’t know how to fix it from here without giving the program the “idea” that I am a third person, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I keep hoping it’ll fix itself. (ha ha). CBK
Nothing is in moderation. I will check spam.
How does “moderation” work? I’ve had seemingly straightforward comments go to moderation, too. Is there an automatic algorithm at work from the producer of the blog software, which searches for certain phrases or frequencies? A human?
**Mark” Perhaps this is a hint: I have had the (sign in each time) moderation problem only since I purchased a new computer. CBK
I was going to say that I have the sign in problem after deleting cookies. You have a new computer that they don’t recognize yet. Eventually they will recognize you, but if you delete your cookies en masse, you will have the same problem again.
Mark,
I don’t know why some comments go into moderation. For a time, it seemed the word “Kavanaugh” would do it. Two or more links would do it. It’s a mystery.
This piece is an admission that we are an oligarchy. Billionaires are the only ones capable of enacting actual National change. Isn’t that sad? How can we change that? (hint: it’s not by voting for the ‘best candidate’)
Support the billionaires”
If billionaires departed
The Earth would then be ours
So, let’s help get them started
On journey to the stars
A dollar here and there
Will help to fund their trip
So let’s be kind and share
To help them launch their ship
Diane Your “end gun violence….” a good idea! I have another idea i.e – Everybody decide they are “pacifist”! Why not!? Give up on needing 2nd admendment!!!Believe in peace!! Bill Murphy (I’ve been a pacifist since entering Peace Corps in1963. Sent from my iPhone
Kaido,
I am a pacifist by nature. But what about all those people who are not? What about the 400 million guns in American homes?
If people spent more money on their homes and kids and less on guns, we might not have the problems we do as a country — and not just on the gun violence issue.
Gun Pride
From cradle to the grave
The People love their guns
They ever rant and rave
About the “Little ones”
From cradle to the grave
The People love their rifles
They ever rant and rave
Cuz rifles have no rivals
Diane Ravitch, given the choice, I would rather use guns for hunting and sport than for any other reason. If you have seen Home Alone 1 and 2, I would prefer methods of home defense like that.
Greg Hackley,
Nice to know you use guns for sport and hunting. Some people use them to murder others. Did you know the US has the highest rate of gun deaths of any nation in the world? Do you feel good knowing we are #1? I don’t think the Founding Fathers wanted a nation that acted like the OK Corral.
The burden of preventing gun violence has fallen on the schools. They have enacted policies and practices to no avail. But they have another resource. If all schools in the entire country announce the date they will shut down until Congress enacts truly meaningful reform, don’t you think we’ll see results?
The burden of preventing gun violence and every other malady that our society faces has fallen on the schools.
I hope you don’t mind my extending your accurate observation.
Schools Are the Answer (no matter the question)
The schools can solve it all
The teachers have the time
In summers and the fall
It really is a crime
That teachers are relaxing
While country goes to pot
We simply shan’t be “asking”
But telling them to “trot”
“The burden of preventing gun violence and every other malady that our society faces has fallen on the schools.”
That’s what happens when policymakers are bought and paid for by, and are afraid of, the NRA and the small band of extremists there. (Polls show that most gun owners and NRA members are FOR commonsense legislation.)
FYI Last night, FRONTLINE ran a program focused on the NRA’s history and their inordinate control over policy and even who has been elected over the past three+ decades. they’ll probably run it again. CBK