AMERICA MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT OUR PESKY CHILD SHOOTERS ...BEFORE WE LOSE GUN RIGHTS

 The Perched Eye blog is near 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

America, Guns & Pesky Six-Year Olds

(excerpted from "pericles21 writes", on Medium.com, January 20, 2023)

Preface: American kids who pack guns. Should we get rid of them before we lose gun rights? All they do is eat and sleep, and cause 'issues'. Is it best just to get rid of 'em all before they turn six or seven? Some Americans seek to minimize their confusion and effort simply by eliminating six-year-olds. Kinda makes sense...after a nap and  Fenty refresher... don't it?

This is written to again lament America’s dis-ease about guns and gun control. And about its children. And about America's tendency to misdirect ‘blame and shame.’ And, once more, about Guns. Who is at fault? Certainly not the NRA. But let us make up our minds - 'what matters a few kids (and some teachers and school staff) wasted by gunfire when it comes to preserving our right to own guns,..as many as we want. That is American 'Freedom.'

Today, January 20, 2023, a six year old first grader at the Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, shot its teacher …supposedly over a classroom disagreement between the two of them. RawStory reposted the shooting details to which this writer responded with several comments, one of which is pasted below:

GUNS & 6-YEAR OLDS — A TOXIC MIX (RIGHT??). (RawStory.com)
Let’s be clear. ‘America’ shot elementary teacher Abby Zwerner. A six year older, “the young man” shooter (police chief description), was then “held in custody” by police…? That doesn’t even make sense for two critical reasons. Since when is a six year old a “young man”? Two, “in custody” — does that mean jailed? Cuffed and chained? Was the six year old ‘read their rights’ to remain silent…and, for a child still learning to read, what would that even mean in a sane culture?The answer to all questions and concerns is “GUNS” and lack of gun control! Got to get rid of guns or 6-year olds…America’s top-o-the-head first choice wouldprobably be to get rid of 6-year-olds as a sacrifice for “Freedom” …whatever that means.

There are many follow-up comments in the RawStory piece to the descriptors and viewpoints expressed by the Newport News police, reporters, and town officials. 

But first, should America be proud of how one of its six-year-olds handled a gun so well...ie, without shooting itself first or wounding others ('secondary casualties' in combat terms). I think not!

Almost universally, the comments express the usual sorrow for the victim(s) and about the general lack of gun control, especially now in Virginia under the open-carry-favoring Republican governor Youngkin. And even greater concern and amazement is expressed in how ‘distanced’ and unfeeling are some media (and police) handling of a child who came into possession of a gun, knew how to use the gun…and used the gun to express a child’s disagreement with an adult. (I read only one dissenter who did not express sensitivity for the child shooter.)

America has a problem with guns. But the child (not a “young man” as the police chief describes it)  learned to use the gun from many examples on American TV that depict gun use as an appropriate way to show anger.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the child learned how to pull the trigger —by watching American TV broadcasts - a 24/7 stream of violent, blood-spilled mayhem delivered raw to all ages. (Did the child hold the gun horizontally ("OG" style) while pulling the trigger?  

America’s (mis) handling of its guns is a global disgrace. We lack an adult-level sensibility about our guns and confuse our right to own as many guns as we want with a child’s misunderstanding of “Freedom.”

As for the unfortunate child ‘perp’ — let’s pray for it now that the system has apparently gotten hold of 'it' ...and let's hope that the police and ‘justice’ system have better sense than to mete out ‘just’ punishment of a child by condemning the child to a term in the local ‘Juvi’ center. A six-year-older would not survive well under that ‘treatment’ (to say the least.)

But meanwhile, on the 'bright side', America now has the excuse to add a new, money-making fetish and cultural topic to make even more graphic and shocking TV series (and profit)— a new fetish, “Kiddies Toting Guns’. Or even new clothing lines — ‘Kiddie Jumpers with Gun Pockets’. America stumbles forward, eyes always focused on the prize regardless (more moola). This is progress.(?)

GUNS AT VOTING PLACES: WE MUST BAN OPEN-CARRY GUNS AT VOTING SITES, IT'S PLAIN INTIMIDATION (AS INTENDED IN THE 1876 SOUTH CAROLINA ELECTION POLL INSTRUCTIONAL FLYER TO PRE-KKK BLACK VOTER DISRUPTERS)

The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

From the Nov 26, 2022, New York Times -"guns, protests and open-carry."

At Protests, Guns Are Doing the Talking

Armed Americans, often pushing a right-wing agenda, are increasingly using open-carry laws to intimidate opponents and shut down debate.

 the effects of more guns in public spaces have not been evenly felt. is uneven - with Democrats largely eschewing firearms and Republicans embracing them — . This has  has warped civic discourse. "Deploying the Second Amendment in service of the First has become a way to buttress a policy argument, a sort of silent, if intimidating, bullhorn."

One observer described a gathering at an LGBTQ rally.... “What I saw was described as "a group of folks who did not want to engage in any sort of dialogue and just wanted to impose their belief.”

A New York Times analysis of more than 700 armed demonstrations found that, at about 77 percent of them, people openly carrying guns represented right-wing views, such as opposition to L.G.B.T.Q. rights and abortion access, hostility to racial justice rallies and support for former President Donald J. Trump’s lie of winning the 2020 election.

From this blogsite: (

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2009

President Obama's First Year, Pt 1: From The Bottom of the Pit, The Spirit of South Carolina's Zombie Racism (Red Shirt Vigilantes) Rides Again)

The history of deliberately wearing(and openly showing) guns at political gatherings...to intimidate, especially at votng sites, goes back to America's days of Reconstruction (1870s) when the former Confederate supporters sought to cancel out the votes of newly-freed slaves.

Also, the wearing of guns at the President's town meetings and the shouting of "Liar" by the South Carolina Congressman (Joe Wilson) is a strategy first laid down in print in post-Civil War Dixie in 1870 by the Dixie states in their efforts to squelch the voting of newly freed African-Americans by intimidation (showing of guns at town meetings and political rallies) and murder, if intimidation was not effective. Here is an excerpt from a  1876 South Carolina poster giving instructions to the white supremacist vigilante group, the South Carolina Red Shirts, how to intimidate and disrupt town meetings - the similarity with tactics used recently to disrupt Mr Obama's town meeting can't be denied:

2. That a Roster must be made of every white and of every Negro in the Townships and returned immediately to the County Executive Committee. 3. .... be armed with rifles and pistols and such other arms as they may command..... . . . 13. "... soon as their leaders or speakers begin to speak ..., tell them then and there to their faces, that they are liars, thieves and rascals, and are only trying to mislead the ignorant Negroes and if you get a chance get upon the platform and address the Negroes. 14. In speeches to Negroes you must remember that argument has no effect upon them; they can only be influenced by their fears, superstitions and cupidity. . . . Treat them so as to show them, you are the superior race, and that their natural position is that of subordination to the white man. . . . 16. Never threaten a man individually. If he deserves to be threatened, the necessities of the times require that he should die. . . . 29. Every club must be uniformed in a RED SHIRT and they must be sure and wear it upon all public meetings and particularly on the day of election. 30. Secrecy should shroud all of our transactions. Let not your left hand know what your right hand does.

(Source: William A. Sheppard, editor, Red Shirts Remembered: Southern Brigadiers of the Reconstruction Period (Ruralist Press, 1940), pp. 46-50, reprinted in Paul D. Escott, et al, eds., Major Problems in the History of the American South, vol. 2, second ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), pp. 37-38.)