What if the VPC threw a victim exploitation party--and nobody came?

Josh Sugarmann is, once again, upset with mainstream America's recalcitrant refusal to fall in line with his extremist agenda of civilian disarmament. This time, his annoyance is focused on what he sees as an inadequate level of wailing and tearing of hair over the recent shootings in a Salt Lake City mall and a Philadelphia shipyard.

As you can see, his "article," titled "How Inured to Mass Shootings Have We Become?" consists of a cut-out page from the Washington Post, with articles about the two incidents highlighted in yellow. A hard worker, that Sugarmann. Anyway, his point, such as it is, apparently is that these shootings should be on the front page, above the fold, in huge font, preferrably accompanied by gore-spattered photographs. The fact that they aren't, we are evidently supposed to believe, indicates how jaded America has become to violence committed by people with guns. By the way, it's interesting to note that most of the comments seem to be from people who do not share his views, despite the fact that this piece is in the Huffington Post--not normally considered popular reading material among NRA member types. Perhaps the Huffington should consider parting ways with Sugarmann, and replacing him with someone whose work resonates more strongly with the beliefs of their readers.

As I have mentioned before, Sugarmann and his ideological allies count on a huge public reaction to shootings. In fact, the more spectacularly violent and horribly tragic a shooting incident is, the more it benefits people like Sugarmann and the VPC (and people and organizations like them). From the Stockton, California schoolyard shooting spree, and the role it played in providing impetus for the now expired ban on so-called "assault weapons," to the shooting at the École Polytechnique, and the energy it provided to civilian disarmament advocates in Canada, to the Port Arthur shooting incident in Australia, and the massive expansion of draconian gun laws it helped spark--the higher profile, the better, in their twisted view.

As Sugarmann's employer (the VPC) says in this piece,

. . . and the fact that until someone famous is shot, or something truly horrible happens, handgun restriction is simply not viewed as a priority.

How frustrating for them, then, when the long and eagerly awaited "something truly horrible" does indeed happen, and they still can't get the kind of audience they wanted for their dance in the blood of the victims. It's almost enough to tempt a gun ban advocate to go out and arrange a truly huge massacre, just to get the publicity they're looking for.

That's one difference between the civilian disarmament lobby and most Americans--most of us see these shootings as a horrid tragedy--while they see them as an opportunity to advance their agenda.