I fully intended to pass along some praise to the Supreme Court Justices who voted 9-0 to allow mifepristone to continue to be used for reproductive care. While they didn't rule on the actual science behind the product, instead ruling that the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, at least, for now, women and their doctors all across America, and especially in the red states that have various abortion bans, will be allowed to make decisions about their bodies without interference from the government.
Sadly, soon after they came out with the 6-3 decision to reverse the ban on bump stocks with Justice Thomas, who wrote the majority opinion, apparently deciding that a device which altered a weapon to fire more bullets faster did not equate with the definition of a machine gun, which was the justification in the first place for banning bump stocks.
I imagine that all the victims of automatic weapons who were ripped apart by the combination, and their families, find little solace in knowing that officially, there loved ones weren't killed by a machine gun.
I am not sure what is more appalling.
That, at the time, an executive decision (signed by former president Trump, which proves again that even a blind squirrel finds a nut here and there), had to be signed based on a borderline interpretation of an existing law because Congress was too scared to pass legislation, or that the conservative justices of SCOTUS decided that the bump stock ban was wrong for a technical reason, so we must now allow for more American citizens to be slaughtered.
While I try not to wish harm upon others, I wonder if Thomas or Alito or Roberts or Gorsuch or Barrett or Kavanaugh might feel differently if one of their loved ones were killed by such a weapon. Would that make a difference to them then?
Why is it that we so often only change our minds on issues when they affect us in the negative, as opposed to employing empathy to direct our thoughts?
In addition to that ruling, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit brought by the last three survivors (although one has passed since the suit was initiated) of the Tulsa Massacre of 1921.
If you are unfamiliar with that event, google it. While it will not make you feel any better as an American, it might provide you with a talking point when someone tells you that the manifestations of slavery and bigotry and hatred that were the law of the land for far too long weren't really that bad.
In the above case, the suit was brought under the guise of nuisance laws having been violated, that being the only thing that could legally be mustered in Oklahoma. Imagine that, hundreds of black folks were murdered, an entire section of their town was burned to the ground, and the only law they could come up with that was broken was in the area of nuisance laws.
Unfortunately, while most rational people might conclude that what occurred in Tulsa 103 years ago was far worse than a nuisance, the OKlahoma Supreme Court dismissed the suit because, well, it just didn't fit into the definition of nuisance law as understood by those very astute justices. You think?
I guess it is good that bump stocks and automatic rifles weren't available then, what a nuisance that would have been!
Finally, this past week the survivors of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, graduated high school. I guess it is ironic (maybe despicable is a better word) that SCOTUS chose this week to allow the possibilities for more Sandy Hooks in the future.
In the meantime, that staunch defender of truth and justice, Alex Jones, who made himself famous by claiming that Sandy Hook was a hoax, and who lost a huge defamation lawsuit brought by the families of those children who were slaughtered that day, is still walking the streets, figuring out a way to find another falsehood to feed his conspiracy fed audience so he can make some money to pay the damages which were levied when he lost in court.
There are a number of things that I just don't understand, a number of perspectives where I find myself flabbergasted that so many Americans believe.
The idea that more guns in the hands of good people is one towards the top of that list. Even more stupefying, that Christians (can you say chino, Christian in name only), advocate for this abomination.
Almost eleven years ago, I wrote the story for which I have supplied a link at the end of this post. Sadly, it was far from prescient.
I don't know if it will ever happen, not the conspiracy part, the part about the American electorate finally waking up and voting for common sense gun (violence) control laws by voting out those who curry favor from the gun lobby and manufacturers.
Based on the SCOTUS and the Oklahoma Supreme Court decisions from this past week, and the obvious attraction for a strongman (can you say dictator) to lead our country, it is apparent that we have moved even farther away from such a day.
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