Today in America

I have been planning on writing about gun laws all week. There’s an idea I’ve been working on for a while, a legal argument taken to sort of silly extremes to illustrate a point about the ridiculous construction of the Second Amendment that is currently the law in this country. The problem with finishing it has been that there’s nothing at all that makes me want to make humorous points about the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence when people are dying every day in America because the NRA and others who benefit from gun sales continue to flood the zone with money. By the zone, I mean Congress and state elected officials. Because really, there’s no other reason dangerous weapons of war are still freely available, including to people with serious mental illness or a demonstrated propensity to violence, except so other people can turn a profit.

Anna Paulina Luna, (R-Fl.), sports an AR-15 assault rifle pin on her lapel. In February, Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.), a gun store owner himself, acknowledged he was handing out the lapel pins shaped like assault rifles to fellow GOP lawmakers.

The NRA has even advocated for blind people to be able to have guns.

If your eyes are open, you know what’s going on here. And it intersects with the national conversation we’ve been having about Supreme Court Justices’ ethics in a really disconcerting way that makes even an optimist skeptical about our future.

So, while I still plan to return to my legal construct about the Second Amendment, today just isn’t the day. Because this happened.

A man who headed into a medical appointment with his mother pulled out a gun, killing one person and wounding four others in midtown Atlanta, on West Peachtree.

After a scramble to find him, with police concentrating first in the building where the shooting occurred and then following leads throughout metro Atlanta, the suspect was arrested just before 8 p.m. local time.

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the Senate as events were unfolding, noting that his young children were in lockdown in Atlanta while he was in Washington, worried about them. He was critical of Republicans who can only share “thoughts and prayers” following mass shootings because “thoughts and prayers are not enough. In fact, it is a contradiction to say that you are thinking and praying and then do nothing. It is to make a mockery of prayer. It is to trivialize faith. We pray not only with our lips, we pray with our legs. We pray by taking action.”

That may be true, but it’s very unlikely that anything is, in fact, going to happen. That’s a hard reality to face. But it’s likely going to take a solid 60-vote majority in the Senate, along with control of the House and of the White House, for Democrats to make progress on an issue where an overwhelming number of American favor new laws limiting guns that will make us all safer and Republicans continue to refuse to do anything about it. Guns should not have more rights than people in our society, but they do. And the ultimate irony is that the same crowd that insists on having their assault weapons also wants to prevent women from having an abortion, because: pro-life. They are explicitly okay with those babies being mowed down in the nation’s schools, hospitals, shopping malls, and churches once they’re born, with only the thin veneer of thoughts and prayers to notice their deaths.

You could choke on the hypocrisy. It’s that thick.

So maybe, just maybe, and even though we know that long-term, political change is necessary, in both states and in Washington, to make any meaningful progress on this issue, the time has come to confront that hypocrisy every time it surfaces. Every time someone talks to you about opposing abortion, ask them about their views on the Second Amendment. And if they tell you they’re pro-gun, point out that’s inconsistent with being pro-life. We all know this. It’s time to stop letting people get away with it. An important part of civil discourse is being unafraid to use the facts to point to inconsistency. These issues connect in an issue that makes a plainspoken dialogue long overdue.

Georgia has some of the most permissive gun laws in the country. In April 2022, Governor Brian Kemp signed a constitutional carry bill. He characterized that measure as one that ensures that “law-abiding Georgians…can protect themselves without having to ask permission from state government.”

In his press release when he signed the measures, Kemp had no problem identifying the source of violence in American cities. He said, “Across the country, we are witnessing liberal states and cities demonize law enforcement, defund local police departments, undermine public safety, and threaten the security of countless American families.” He also knew how to keep Georgians safe from that threat. From the upscale Gables neighborhood where he spoke that day, he explained:

“Here at Gables is where Marty and I bought Lucy her first firearm—a GLOCK 43X—9MM—which she is carrying today!

We did that, not only because we strongly believe in the Second Amendment, but we also want Lucy—and both her sisters—to be able to defend themselves.

As the parents of three daughters—there’s nothing Marty and I care more about than making sure Jarrett, Lucy, and Amy Porter are safe.

With Jarrett a recent graduate and Lucy and Amy Porter still in college, that isn’t as easy as it used to be.”

Send your daughter off to college with a gun! What could possibly go wrong? Best of all, Kemp proudly told citizens of his state that “HB 218 ensures that individuals who are licensed to carry a weapon in another state are also authorized to do so here in Georgia.” Doesn’t that make you feel safe?

None of this kept Georgians safe today. And while all of this may warm the cockles of gun dealers’ hearts, it does little to secure the safety of our communities. We know how to do that. When the Federal Assault Weapons Ban was in place, violent crime dropped. When it was allowed to expire, it began to climb again. It’s not rocket science. Ready access to firearms turns disputes into deaths.

Governor Kemp was proud when Georgia passed a fetal heartbeat bill, prohibiting abortion as soon as a heartbeat could be detected. But he isn’t at all concerned about what happens to actual, live people at risk from gun violence. So ask yourself why—you know, of course, that it’s a rhetorical question. The answers tell us a lot about the deep moral rot underlying the hypocrisy that permits guns to continue to permeate our society.

Once upon a time, when people asked where I was from, I’d say Los Angeles. Or when people asked where in L.A., I’d tell them: close to Pasadena, where the Rose Bowl is played. But as of January this year, when a 72-year-old gunman opened fire during a Lunar New Year celebration, killing 10 people before turning the gun on himself, I simply say, I’m from Monterey Park. And people know. That shooting happened just down the street from my family’s hardware store. Every mass shooting happens in the center of someone’s universe and harms the people they love. We’re entitled to better from our elected representatives. While working towards long-term change, I’m committing to myself that I’ll put the energy into scrutinizing candidates’ records on the Second Amendment. I won’t vote for anyone, no matter the position, who doesn’t support gun reform, and I’ll support candidates who do. It doesn’t feel like much, but it’s what I’ve got. And I do believe in our collective ability as voters to create change, much-needed change.

As a reminder, both the trial in the E. Jean Carroll case and jury deliberations in the Proud Boys prosecution continue. The jury in the Proud Boys case is extraordinarily diligent and sort of adorable. Whatever their verdict, it’s clear that they are closely scrutinizing everything. I like a jury that takes its job seriously.

And we now have a schedule for what will happen next in E. Jean Carroll. Trump’s lawyers have said they will not be putting on any case. That seems like a poor strategy in a civil case, where the jury need only be persuaded by a preponderance of the evidence that the plaintiff is entitled to judgment against the defendant. You see it sometimes in criminal cases, where the government bears the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and the defendant argues they have not met it. But even in those cases, there is often a character witness or some effort to deconstruct part of the government’s case. Resting without putting on any evidence is a sure sign that there simply isn’t a case for Trump’s lawyers to put on. Because the trial is happening in federal court, the jury’s verdict must be unanimous, even in a civil case. So Trump’s hope is that there is a juror or two, staunchly in his camp, who will hold out despite the evidence.

The judge expects the trial testimony to be completed after lunch on Thursday.

There will be a charge conference Monday morning. That’s when the lawyers and the judge hammer out the instructions the judge will give the jury on the law they must use to decide the case. Juries are called the judge of the facts, because it’s up to them to decide what they believe is true based on all of the testimony that they’ve heard. But the judge instructs them on the law, and they are obliged to follow his directions. As you might imagine, that means there are a lot of issues to resolve in a charge conference.

Closing arguments are scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday. The judge asked the lawyers how much time they needed. Carroll’s lawyer asked for two hours for her first closing argument and an hour for rebuttal. Trump’s lawyers asked for two and a half hours “give or take.” So, arguments and the charge to the jury on Monday. Deliberation will begin on Tuesday.

I feel obligated to say, yet again, that it’s a mistake for the Chief Justice to continue to refuse to permit cameras in federal courts. We all have an interest in what goes on in them, and this case makes that plain.

We’re in this together,

Joyce