VOTE DEMOCRAT FOR GUN CONTROL

If you’re truly pro-life, you should be anti-gun

June is National Gun Violence Awareness Month, a good time to consider America's relationship with guns.

"Non-Violence" (The Knotted Gun) statue by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. (Photo by Maria Lysenko/Unsplash/Creative Commons)

June 10, 2024

By 

Tony Campolo

(RNS) — In 2022, 48,204 Americans were killed by guns, which are now the leading cause of death among children and teens. Our gun deaths have come to define us in the eyes of the world. You might even say that guns are as American as apple pie. 

Americans constitute less than 5% of the world’s population, but we own half of the world’s guns, making ours the only country where guns outnumber people and leading to firearm homicide rates here that are seven times greater than in Canada, 19 times greater than in France, 33 times greater than in Australia, and 77 times greater than in Germany.

This is American exceptionalism of the most deadly and unimaginable kind, and many people are fed up and want change. According to Pew, 61% of Americans say it is too easy to obtain guns; 69% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats want to increase the minimum age for buying guns to 21 years old; 88% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats support laws preventing those with mental illnesses from purchasing guns.

Yet our legislators do the bidding of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the National Association for Gun Rights, Gun Owners of America, and the National Rifle Association, which spent $30 million to elect Donald Trump in 2016 and has endorsed him again for 2024.

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What is most remarkable is that many of these legislators call themselves pro-life. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, “pro-life,” “pro-family” evangelical Christian, like most in his tribe, opposes even the most popular, commonsense restrictions on guns.

Johnson was elected speaker the same day a mentally unhealthy gun enthusiast killed 18 people in a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston, Maine. “At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart, it’s not the guns, it’s not weapons,” Johnson told Fox News’ Sean Hannity a day later.

Whenever I hear Christians trot out the “heart” argument to fend off gun restrictions, I want to ask: “Can you please explain? Are American hearts really 77 times darker than German hearts?”

They called Jesus the Prince of Peace, but today’s politically conservative Christians are more likely to own guns than the average American and less likely to support gun legislation. No surprise, they also claim that America’s gun violence epidemic is caused by anything but guns.

“I don’t think guns are the issue,” said Harrison Butker, kicker for Kansas City Chiefs, whose hometown Super Bowl Parade was interrupted by gunfire that killed one and injured 20. “I think we need strong fathers in the home that are being great examples for our youth,” he told Catholic channel EWTN.

One “pro-life” leader, James Dobson, blamed the 2012 killing of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School on God’s judgment against America for accepting abortion and gay marriage. “We have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us,” he said.

One “pro-life” group blamed the 2023 shooting that killed six at a Christian school in Nashville on “a woman who identifies as a transgender man,” “some sort of demonic possession” and the fact that the Biden White House “has two men who wear dresses” (an apparent reference to trans people working in the administration). Tennessee legislators rebuffed Christian parents’ pleas for gun control.

“Pro-life” voters regularly vote for representatives who feature AR–15s in their Christmas card photos and who back legislation that would make the AR–15 “the National Gun of the United States.”

Thankfully, Shane Claiborne offers a better approach: “Some say gun violence is a heart problem,” he says. “Others say it’s a gun problem. I believe it’s both.”

Shane was a student of mine at Eastern University, and we’ve worked together over many years on the Red Letter Christians movement, books, tours and other initiatives. Years ago, Shane told me God was calling him to focus on gun violence. I asked him to explain.

“Too many lives that are made in the precious image of God are cut short because of guns,” he told me. “And it doesn’t have to be this way.” He pursued this calling followed with a 2019 book, “Beating Guns,” and a national tour with a Mennonite blacksmith who turned guns into garden tools or musical instruments. Shane also transforms gun advertising into artwork.

Shane now holds near-weekly events in Philadelphia and around the country to remove guns from city streets. The events provide a safe and “sacramental” space for those whose lives have been shattered by gun violence. One mother said: “I understand something I hadn’t understood before. God knows what it feels like to lose a son.”

Shane’s work sounds pretty pro-life to me. I believe that those who want to be truly pro-life need to do more than oppose abortion. They need to make principled, pro-life stances against war, the death penalty, climate change and America’s unusually easy access to guns.

It’s true, guns don’t shoot themselves. People pull triggers. That’s why we should all support laws that keep triggers away from troubled souls like the man who shot up Lewiston.

Guns have held a powerful allure for many since America’s founding, and the socialization process starts early. Children use toy guns to mimic the heroes they see on TV and in movies and video games. Boys with guns pretend to be real men, settling disputes with violence.

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RELATED: Greeting the Prince of Peace 10 years after Sandy Hook

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Most adult gun owners cite “protection” as a key concern, but the presence of a gun in the house can endanger all within, particularly one vulnerable group. Year after year, the majority of America’s gun deaths are suicides, not murders. In 2021, 26,328 Americans used guns to kill themselves.

“People who use guns to kill themselves often succeed, so they’re not given a second chance,” says Shane. “People who don’t have access to guns are more likely to survive a first suicide attempt, and to reconsider.”

Tony Campolo. (Courtesy photo)

Perhaps all of us should reconsider our country’s complicated — and deadly — relationship with guns this June as part of National Gun Violence Awareness Month.

(Tony Campolo is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University and the author of the forthcoming “Pilgrim: A Theological Memoir,” written with Steve Rabey. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Send Trump to Bedlam, Not Rikers

BY MATTHEW STEVENSON

JUNE 7, 2024
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Photo by Caleb Wright

Unless on July 11 Judge Juan Merchan sends Donald Trump up the river for four years of hard labor (poetic justice for having purloined a presidential term), it’s not worth playing the MAGA mug’s game of sentencing the former president to community service (he’d just steal from the youth basketball cash box) or probation (good luck trying to find a paying job for an adjudicated sex offender).

Nor will anything good come from allowing Trump’s release on his own recognizance pending an appeal, as that convoluted process might well take two years, in which time Trump can strut his stuff and withhold repaying his debt to society for the 34 felonies—in the same way he has yet to pay E. Jean Carroll her owed amount of $91.6 million or the state of New York its due $450 million.

Trump may be a master criminal, but he’s also a master of spending other people’s campaign contributions to slow walk every court case in his life, so that in the meantime he can run for president and extract billions from his latest Wall Street swindle (Trump Media).

* * *

Instead Judge Merchan should do the American community a real service and at the July 11 hearing remand Trump for 30 days to a New York state hospital for a full mental evaluation.

Just about anything else Judge Merchan could do on July 11 will play into the hands of Trump and his Doomsday Gang, with this one exception.

Now Judge Merchan has the chance to send Trump off for a “psych eval” and there’s nothing all the president’s horses and all the president’s men can do to keep Humpty Dumpy propped up on the wall at Mar-a-Lago (along with his DJ headset).

If Trump wore old clothes and rode around on the New York subway mumbling the things he says at his press conferences, he long ago would have been dragged off to a state hospital.

If he was a member of your family, you would be waiting at the clinic early on a Monday morning, wondering about your options (and one of them would not be to run him for the presidency or hand him the nuclear codes).

* * *

It is well within the remit of a presiding judge in a New York criminal trial to question whether the defendant has understood the charges that have been brought against him—and then, if there are doubts, to ask state medical examiners to conduct a thorough evaluation of the convict’s mental fitness (before any sentence is rendered).

Here are summaries of the New York codes under which Judge Merchan could order Trump to undergo a full mental work-up in a state facility. According to a paper outlining the rights of patients:

—A person who is confined in jail awaiting trial or sentencing may be admitted to a psychiatric center under Section 508 of the Rights of Inpatients in New York State Psychiatric Centers Correction Law. This admission is equivalent to an involuntary admission under the Mental Hygiene Law, except that the patient remains under guard and in custody of jail officials.

—A person who is a defendant in a criminal proceeding, who is or may be incapable of understanding the proceedings or helping in his or her own defense, may be committed under one of several court orders under Article 730 of the Criminal Procedure Law. An order of examination requires that the person be confined in a hospital for up to 30 days while a psychiatric examination is conducted. If necessary to complete the examination, the judge may authorize confinement for an additional period of up to 30 days.

On what basis should Trump be remanded to a state hospital? To me, two things are obvious from his various civil and criminal procedures: the first is that he shows no awareness or remorse for any of his actions, even when a jury has found him guilty; second, and more telling, in matters of sexual abuse, he denies overwhelming evidence against him, again showing no contrition.

Given that—similar to Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Jeffrey Epstein—Trump is a serial abuser of women, the judge would be well within his obligations to order what is called a work-up on his mind.

Whether the doctors would find anything is another question.

* * *

Trump’s lawyers or his family could challenge the court order for a mental evaluation, but at any hearing Judge Merchan could present into evidence the transcript of Trump’s recent press conference held at Trump Tower shortly after his conviction on 34 felony counts.

Trump spoke incoherently for 33 minutes about the trial, never once getting close to the nature of the charges brought against him. Here, for example, is how Trump opened the press conference:

Thank you very much everybody. This is a case where if they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone. These are bad people. These are, in many cases, I believe, sick people. When you look at our country, what’s happening where millions and millions of people are flowing in from all parts of the world, not just South America, from Africa, from Asia, from the Middle East, and they’re coming in from jails and prisons and they’re coming in from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re coming in from all over the world into our country, and we have a president and a group of fascists that don’t want to do anything about it because they could right now today, he could stop it, but he’s not. They’re destroying our country. Our country’s in very bad shape, and they’re very much against me saying these things.

How Trump made the mental leap from a trial over election interference to U.S. immigration laws is anyone’s guess. Later on in the press conference, he got no closer to an understanding of his own case, when he said:

So we have an NDA, non-disclosure agreement. It’s a big deal, a non-disclosure agreement. Totally honorable, totally good, totally accepted. Everybody has them. Every company has non-disclosure agreements. But the press called it a slush fund and all sorts of other things. Hush money. Hush money. It’s not hush money. It’s called a non-disclosure agreement. And most of the people in this room have a non-disclosure agreement with their company. It’s a disgrace. So it’s not hush money. It’s a non-disclosure agreement. Totally legal, totally common. Everyone has it. And what happened is he signed a non-disclosure agreement with this person, I guess other people, but it’s totally honest. You’re allowed to make the payment. You don’t have to make it… You can make it any way you want. It’s a non-disclosure agreement. And he signed that. And there was nothing wrong with signing it. And this should have been a non-case, and everybody said it was a non-case, including Bragg, Bragg said. Until I ran for office, and then they saw the polls. I was leading the Republicans, I was leading the Democrats, I was leading everybody, and all of a sudden they brought it back.

Just to be clear, Trump wasn’t found guilty of agreeing to a non-disclosure agreement or having sex with a porn star, although to hear Stephanie Cliffords (aka Stormy Daniels) tell of the encounter it was close to being non-consensual.

* * *

Trump was tried and convicted on charges that alleged that he falsified business records to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. But in Trump’s mind he was railroaded (34 times) for sloppy accounting, as he said at his press conference:

So the whole thing is legal expense was marked down as legal expense. Think of it. This is the crime that I committed that I’m supposed to go to jail for 187 years for when you have violent crime all over this city at levels that nobody’s ever seen before, where you have businesses leaving and businesses are leaving because of this. Because heads of businesses say, “Man, we don’t want to get involved with that.” I could go through the books of any business person in this city, and I could find things that, in theory, I guess let’s indict him, let’s destroy his life. But I’m out there and I don’t mind being out there because I’m doing something for this country and I’m doing something for our constitution.

At any procedural hearing, Judge Merchan might also point out to Trump’s legal representatives that their client claims to have no memory of numerous sexual encounters that many women, under oath, have testified in court took place (unwillingly) between themselves and the defendant.

Of E. Jean Carroll, Trump said: “I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened.” He also said: “I don’t know who this woman is. I never met this woman.” But in two separate court cases on the matter, a jury of his peers said he had, and that he had sexually abused her.

Possible question to Trump during his evaluation: “If a woman is ‘your type,’ does that justify rape?”

* * *

I am not a psychiatrist nor do I play one on YouTube, but the great scandal of the 2024 election is that Trump’s mental impairment is not more of an issue. (In a separate article, I will address President Biden’s fitness for office.)

That Trump slurs his words, speaks in the free associations of a Eugène Ionesco character, lies endlessly, talks to himself, has no memory of sexual assaults, and feels no contrition for anything in his life (including violations for which he has been convicted by juries and courts) speaks to various psychological impairments that could well range from dementia to psychosis.

Just that he slept through most of his recent trial indicates a certain detachment from reality. So too do his spoken sentences show a mind that is adrift along a spectrum that confuses free association with political discourse. (Question for the doctors: if he can sleep through a criminal trial, would he also sleep through cabinet meetings or a foreign policy crisis?)

Here’s how Trump ended his post-conviction press conference:

Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of our country. He’s the worst president in the history of our country. The most incompetent, he’s the dumbest president we’ve ever had. He’s the dumbest president, most incompetent president, and he’s the most dishonest president we’ve ever had. And he’s a Manchurian candidate. You take a look at the way he treats China, Russia, so many others. I ended the Russian pipeline. It was dead. He comes in and he approves it, and he gets three and half million. Meaning three and a half million is paid to the family, his family, from the mayor of Moscow’s wife. And I said, where did that come from? Nobody wants to talk about it, but he’s a very big danger to our country. And the only way they think they can win this election is by doing exactly what they’re doing right now. Win it in the courts because they can’t win it at the ballot box.

I am not saying that Judge Merchan should lock Trump away in some KGB mental hospital, as happened to the political opposition in Stalin’s Soviet Union. But I am pointing out that while New York State court has jurisdiction over convicted felon Trump, the judge has both the right and the obligation—before issuing a sentence—to find out if the defendant has understood the charges that were brought against him. (From his endless press conferences during his trials, Trump sounds clueless about the facts in his own cases.)

* * *

At the heart of any mental evaluation should be Trump’s sociopathic lack of remorse for transgressions done in his life—including inciting the deadly riot on January 6 and hiding state secrets in those Mar-a-Lago pool rooms.

By sentencing Trump to community service or even making him a martyr to the MAGA right by putting him in jail for two months, Judge Merchan would just be playing into the Trump game of politics as a reality show, followed by more weepy press conferences and whinging claims of injustice.

To confine Trump to a state mental hospital for thirty days and to review the contents of the evaluation in court, Merchan would be serving both justice and the electorate (which was cheated by the 34 felonies), and even showing compassion for someone who clearly is not well.

Once the results of the mental evaluation are known, Judge Merchan can better decide how to proceed with Trump’s sentencing. And then if the Republican Party wants to nominate Trump as its candidate for the presidency or if, come November, a majority of Americans want him back in the White House, at least it will be clear to all whether it is Trump or the voters who are hearing voices.

Matthew Stevenson is the author of many books, including Reading the Rails, Appalachia Spring, andThe Revolution as a Dinner Party, about China throughout its turbulent twentieth century. His most recent books are Biking with Bismarck and Our Man in Iran. Out now: Donald Trump’s Circus Maximus and Joe Biden’s Excellent Adventure, about the 2016 and 2020 elections.

 Bedlam Explains the 1% vs. The 99%

The movie "Bedlam" (starring Boris Karloff, Anna Lee and Billy House) is about the treatment of patients at an 18th century insane asylum. The argument in the clip can easily double for the argument between the 1% and the 99% with a little 47% thrown in for good measure.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder in the USA

BY KATHLEEN WALLACE

JUNE 7, 2024
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Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

What to do when your home country fits all the criteria in the DSM-5 for Narcissistic Personality Disorder? That’s a tough one. If a nation can allow corporations to be persons, I think it is only fair that the nation itself be subject to the same mental scrutiny that a person behaving in a deranged manner would be exposed to. What makes a healthy person? What makes a healthy nation? These are questions that need to be considered to avoid the kind of destruction that typically comes from narcissistic injury and the subsequent lashing out that follows when a narcissist no longer gets his or her way.

There are nine basic criteria used to diagnose the personality disorder, and I would argue that the United States currently meets all of them. Let’s have a look:

1. A grandiose sense of importance. “American Exceptionalism”–need I say more? To even coin such a phrase is almost breathtakingly deluded, especially when the actions simply do not line up in a manner to deserve such praise. Talk about participation trophies. So like the narcissistic individual, the nation views itself above and beyond all others, setting itself up to be the judge, jury, and executioner of the planet (this goes for other nations as well as other species that occupy the planet with us). Climate change? Who cares when you are “exceptional”. Only the little people care about wet-bulb temperatures.

2. A preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success and power. The US preoccupation is not one that considers important goals such as the well-being of its citizens, no, the preoccupation is that of being so strong militarily that no heed is to be given to the objections of others, even if they are well-reasoned and humanitarian. It’s all about utilizing the lion’s share of the yearly budget on a military far beyond anything that resembles self-defense. So yes, I think we can check off this box as well on the criteria.

3. A belief that they are special in such a way that only other high-status peoples or institutions can understand them. Shall we go into the toxic friendship/narcissistic professional courtesy that is the relationship with Israel? Americans love to root for the underdog in movies but when push comes to shove in the global sphere, they almost always back those with power. In much the same way, the predominant Christian flavored religions give lip service to the downtrodden, but almost never do anything but find fault in those who are not powerful in their life situation. The pathology of the leaders is felt deep down, oozing to the citizens as well.

4. A need for excessive admiration. Oh, my how this one enrages when this need is not met. This is a nation that renamed French Fries due to perceived slights from France. Much like an aging diva, the US demands all to admire her obviously crypt-like face instead of aging into a place of wisdom and grace. No, the US claws and rages if it isn’t viewed favorably as it demands the mirror on the wall slather on compliments. You are supposed to say thank you as the boot comes down on your face (and also compliment the boot).

5. A sense of entitlement. One very specific example would be how the nation has literally been built up on stolen land, by stolen people as well as immigrants from nations likely insecure due to US policies. But the entitlement runs deep, and no clear nod to those realities is made. The White House was built by slaves with men occupying it who raped their slaves. Yet we are not to mention these demonstrable truths, because…..entitlement.

6. Interpersonally exploitative behavior. Yes, pay your taxes, we in the government will decide that we would like to use it to fund global non-stop wars and genocides. But you….no health care, no college without debt trapping….just vote. Oh, and when you do vote, we won’t do what you want, even if it is something with broad bipartisan support. If you had a friend like this, would you do anything but run away from them?

7. A lack of empathy. Oh, my—where to start with this one? A nation that has even its “liberal” media such as The Atlantic running articles giving ways it is legal to murder children in war? A nation that has no overall broad sense of need to assuage the misery of so many of its own citizens living on the streets? A nation that just takes it for granted that all of these hideous and human contrived systems are to be accepted? Sounds like an empathy deficit to me, if not an entirely lacking notion of what empathy even is.

8. An envy of others or a belief that others are envious of him or her. “They hate us for our freedoms”. Enough said.

9. Arrogant and haughty behaviors or attitudes. I think the best way to exemplify this is the manner that shows that war crimes are those committed by other nations, not the US or its pal Israel. It’s a wholesale denial of reality to say war crimes are not happening with the weapons (white phosphorus etc.) supplied by our nation. But the sheer arrogance exhibited by our press secretaries in particular, is absolutely amazing. It’s as if you have a teenager that puts on lipstick while driving drunk, runs over kids and then says “Did not!” when you have 7 video cameras that caught it on film.

So those are your criteria for the DSM-5. I don’t know that you need to hit on all of them to get an NPD diagnosis landed on your ass, but I’d say the US handily hits each and every one– hard and without nuance.

So the next question is….what do you do about this? In a family or relationship situation many recommend a “no contact” with those with NPD because it is simply not a disorder that can be cured according to many. The only way is to save yourself. We have seen this in the actions of unprecedented numbers of Americans leaving (or expressing a desire to leave) the country. It’s ironic that a nation so hostile to: insert immigrant of the day is now harboring so many with a wish to leave. I’d say this is people trying to go “no contact” with the narcissist whether they know it or not. Sadly, this is not feasible and the influence of the narcissist is wide. It’s not a broad solution unless another planet opens up and invites us (and of course they’d need to filter out the sickos—not seeing this one happening no matter how many UAPs float around in our skies).

In a family situation, often a narcissist breeds a sense of futility and depression in the other family members. They steal the oxygen from the room and it becomes difficult to even think clearly. I believe this is where we are at right now with our government being so thick with the disorder. As a way of feeling powerful, the worst narcissistic traits are often emulated, and I think this is what we are seeing in the MAGA movement. It’s a predictable response to powerlessness coming from those who perhaps already have an inherent lack of empathy. They will align with toxicity to feel less vulnerable.

Perhaps the main takeaway from this is to realize that when viewing the behavior of the narcissist, you can’t look at it with your own normally functioning sense of empathy. You are viewing the behaviors of something alien to what most of us have going on internally. Often the most hideous policy is not accidental, but very much to be expected from an institution that checks off every criteria that would cause us to label an individual with a serious personality disorder. It’s on us to continue to refuse to normalize this pathology and to dig in as voices for empathy because we truly are looking at a serious mental disorder being manifest when we look at our government. NPD! NPD! NPD!

Kathleen Wallace writes out of the US Midwest. Her writing is collected on her Substack page.