In the hours following the barbaric killing of at least 59 people in Las Vegas, America has once again found itself reckoning with mass gun violence. What can be done? Shit, can anything be done? Does the U.S. have the wherewithal to unstitch the right to bear arms from its culture?
These questions will be answered in the days, weeks, and lifetimes to come. Or not. What has already been proven – as if it needed proving – is that some Americans are unable to accept the apparent leniency afforded to those who amass military-grade arsenals, while authorities place far more stringent restrictions on other facets of life.
One especially salient point has cut through the discussion after Las Vegas: a quote highlighting the hypocrisy of allowing individuals to stock up on weapons, while making abortions insanely difficult to obtain.
A little louder for the folks in the back. pic.twitter.com/NAB9bvU7CM
— Maryellen Stewart (@maryellen) October 2, 2017
That quote has been shared tens of thousands of times across various social media platforms. It’s easy to see why: it clearly contrasts the ability to procure death-dealing implements with the difficulty of obtaining an abortion, and the apparent belief that the two are commensurate in terms of harm to society.
Gloria Steinem has frequently been referenced as the source of that text; while she did post it to her Facebook page in 2015, she gave the caveat “this riff is not mine, it’s on the Internet – I thank whoever gave us all this present.”
Still, the thought experiment was obviously good enough for her, and it’s strong enough to make the rounds following yet another bout of excessive violence. What remains to be seen is if that logic will extend from social media and into honest-to-god practice.
