America is suffering enough, so let’s end the gratuitous lecturing

Waleed Aly speaks about gun control on Network Ten's The Project.

Gun massacre in America, gratuitous lectures from Australia. As if the Americans weren’t suffering enough with the murder of 59 people in Las Vegas. It should have been a time for Australians to offer condolences, or at least observe a respectful silence. But smugness is a powerful driver, and even though the dead still lay in situ, the urge to pontificate was overwhelming.

“God bless America, the home of those cowering beneath a hail of bullets & the land of those who refuse to do anything about it,” tweeted social commentator Jane Caro.

God bless America, the home of those cowering beneath a hail of bullets & the land of those who refuse to do anything about it.

— Jane Caro (@JaneCaro) October 2, 2017

Predictably, some directed their self-righteous rage at President Donald Trump. “They don’t need God’s blessing, they need gun control,” tweeted Fairfax columnist Clementine Ford. “Do your f****** job.” After all, Trump has spent a whole nine months in office, and he should have fixed America’s gun problem by now, right?

“While military weapons can be bought at the corner store, all the tears from the White House like the President (sic) are fake,” tweeted journalist Paul Bongiorno. Seriously? The sale of automatic weapons to civilians is restricted to those manufactured before May 1986, and to insinuate they can be purchased at a Las Vegas 7-Eleven is ridiculous.

While military weapons can be bought at the corner store, all the tears from the White House like the President are fake.

— Paul Bongiorno (@PaulBongiorno) October 3, 2017

“Thoughts are with the people of Las Vegas,” tweeted Greens leader and senator Richard Di Natale. A nice if banal offering. But he could not help himself. “But they deserve stronger gun laws, not just our sympathy,” he added self-righteously. “Some will say it’s to (sic) early to talk about gun control,” tweeted fellow Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young. “Truth is, for so many grieving families it’s already too late. Enough excuses.”

“Thank God we live in Australia,” said Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Instead of acknowledging former Prime Minister John Howard’s reform of Australia’s gun laws in 1996 and the spirit of bipartisanship that prevailed, Shorten had to politicise it for self-aggrandisement. “Thank God for our gun laws and heaven help anyone who wants to weaken these gun laws because they will have to come through me and the Labor Party.” Is it not hypocritical to be espousing one’s pacific principles while doing the alpha male chest-beating?

Contrasting the ways in which two presidents had responded to such tragedies, Fairfax journalist Michael Pascoe claimed it was a case of Obama’s “pain” and Trump’s “meh”. How enlightening. Commenting in the aftermath of the 2015 gun massacre at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, Pascoe reminded us that we were far more civilised. “Australia is not like the United States,” he wrote. “We decided not to be. We decided to grow up instead and become a more reasonable, rational society that explicitly values human life and prefers to think the best of people, rather than the worst.”

Only 76 years ago, our journalists and political leaders had no such qualms about Americans with guns when it appeared a Japanese invasion of Australia was imminent. “Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom,” said then Prime Minister John Curtin. Not only did we implore America to send its conscripts to defend Australia (ironically at a time when Australian conscripts, in the early stages of the Pacific War, could not be compelled to serve overseas), we would have been very upset had they left their guns at home. How smug we have become.

Speaking of smug, Waleed Aly of The Project accused Trump of “hiding something” in the president’s condemnation of the shooting as an “act of pure evil.”

As Las Vegas mourns, the cycle begins - this will happen again. #TheProjectTV | Written by Waleed Aly & Tom Whitty (@twhittyer) pic.twitter.com/5xEuok97SZ

— The Project (@theprojecttv) October 3, 2017

“It’s too easy to say that,” said Aly. “It’s too easy to make this about one person and not a nation in denial.” Perhaps he is right but one might point out to Aly his habit of referring to Islamic terrorist atrocities as ‘lone wolf’ attacks. Writing in 2013 in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, Aly played down the threat of terrorism, saying it was a “perpetual irritant” that “is not any kind of existential threat”.

“The truth is, the thing about this act is not how evil it is, but how incredibly ordinary it’s become,” said Aly of the Las Vegas tragedy. “And this will happen again,” he added, a phrase he repeated seven times in the five and a half minute segment. Much like quite a few perpetual irritants have occurred in San Bernardino, Orlando, London, Paris, Nice, Brussels, Berlin and Normandy, just to name a few. And these will happen again.

Only in June this year Aly was critical of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s “Enough is enough” declaration in the wake of the London Bridge attack. Such an ethos, said Aly, was “misleading”, for terrorism “does not end simply because we decide it’s time.” One could also say the same of the American gun culture. How does Aly propose Trump address this, particularly in a nation where the right to bear arms is enshrined in its constitution, and which has around 300 million guns?

As Las Vegas mourns, the cycle begins - this will happen again. #TheProjectTV | Written by Waleed Aly & Tom Whitty (@twhittyer) pic.twitter.com/5xEuok97SZ

— The Project (@theprojecttv) October 3, 2017

To say reform is futile would be defeatist, but the fact remains that it is a domestic issue. Let’s not condescend to the Americans or preen in our example of gun law reform. We can rightly take pride in our success, but that should not extend to gratuitous and simplistic sneering.

Besides, what makes some think Australia is the exemplar when it comes to crime prevention? On one hand our homicide rate of one per 100,000 is reassuring compared to that of 4.88 per 100,000 in America (2015), but the Northern Territory’s is an horrific 6.5 per 100,000. Drive-by shootings in Western Sydney are a common occurrence, as are car-jackings and home invasions in Melbourne. In Victoria the homicide rate has risen 30 per cent in the past year. Perhaps Di Natale, rather than publicly opine about the need for better gun laws in Las Vegas, should concentrate on his home state of Victoria.

As for any Americans who may be reading this, take small comfort in the fact that not all Australians see the need to tell you how to fix your domestic problems. We too have our share of loud and opinionated commentators, many of whom never miss a chance to kick Uncle Sam in the ribs when he’s down. And sadly, it will happen again.