Corporate capture, the Covenant shooting, and a crippled system we must change

Flanked by legislative leaders, Gov. Bill Lee signs - for the second time -a law permitting permitless gun carry at a Middle Tennessee Beretta factory in June 2021. (Photo: Sam Stockard)

“Range is hot!” The curt, sandpaper voice of the ever-grumpy range warden at my Boy Scout summer camp was always loud, even through my hearing protection. How someone can sound like five decades of chewing tobacco consumption and still be loud as a cannon is beyond me, but twenty years later, a voice that was once annoying to hear is now nostalgic in my memory’s airbrushed rendition. Or maybe his voice is just a steady reminder of how long firearms have been a core part of my life, beginning with that young Scout winning marksmanship awards with a tiny rifle that today feels barely larger than a lead pencil in this grown man’s hands.

Scouts was a long time ago, and though my love for shooting sports remains, images from 20 years’ worth of school massacres are like plaster casts affixed to the synapses of my mind, ones that no doctor can remove. From the Nashville Covenant Shooting brought so painfully back into our minds due to its recent anniversary to countless others, I’ve watched in horror as mass shootings are followed by right-wing politicians refusing to enact gun reforms supported by a growing majority of Americans.

The gun industry uses its power to thwart meaningful changes supported by a majority of Americans

Just as many gun enthusiasts race to buy guns and ammo whenever a Democrat sits in the White House, the manufacturers who gleefully profit from that frantic consumer demand race to use their profits to buy politicians. The result is silence but for the crickets in the houses of power every time a mass shooting occurs.

Correlation does not prove causation, but it’s worth noting that gun lobbying apparatuses have increasingly had to rely on corporate support instead of citizen donors at the same time that a growing majority of Americans — and Tennesseans — support basic gun reforms

This is called corporate capture, which the Center for Constitutional Rights defines as “a phenomenon where private industry uses its political influence to take control of the decision-making apparatus of the state.”

The gun industry plays the corporate capture tune like an old pro. The U.S. comprises just 4.2% of the world’s population yet produces 42% of its weapons. Americans own 46% of the world’s 857 million civilian-use firearms, and the market share of the top five American arms manufacturers outstrips the top 18 non-American arms manufacturers combined. An industry does not get that big without enjoying a cozy quid pro quo relationship with the government.

But what does that relationship look like? Gun companies have always influenced U.S. politics, but this practice has gotten much worse in recent years. From 2010 to 2020, gun corporations and the dark money groups they fund spent $155 million on “outside spending,” a type of lobbying brought on by the 2010 Citizens United SCOTUS ruling that allows corporations to spend infinite sums of money to influence political outcomes.

Then there’s the NRA, which claims to source the funds it uses in its lobbying campaigns from private citizens despite having always enjoyed financial support from gun companies. The NRA also lost over one million members in the last six years (the worst membership decline in its 153-year history) and now must rely even more heavily on corporate contributions. Since 2018, donations from just a handful of gun manufacturers comprised more than one-third of the NRA’s total revenue, a new highest-ever for where the organization gets its cash. Big-name donors included Smith & Wesson, Springfield, Mossberg, and Ruger. Even foreign gun companies like Glock, SIG Sauer, Taurus, and Beretta have influenced our politics by way of millions donated annually to the NRA. 

The shift in the source of the gun lobby’s money comes at an interesting time

Correlation does not prove causation, but it’s worth noting that gun lobbying apparatuses have increasingly had to rely on corporate support instead of citizen donors at the same time that a growing majority of Americans — including Tennesseans — support basic gun reforms that could keep them safer without sacrificing their Second Amendment rights. Americans support universal background checks (81%), waiting periods (79%), mandatory safety training (81%), and permit-only concealed carry (79%). 

Red flag laws, which could be a strong defense against mass shootings, are supported by about 74.5% of Americans. Such laws operate much like restraining orders in that they allow police and family members to petition a court to determine if there’s enough evidence to temporarily keep guns from people who might pose an imminent threat.

A day after the March 27 mass shooting at The Covenant School, a woman is overcome with emotion in front of an impromptu memorial. (Photo: John Partipilo)

“Red flag laws are promising because they’re specifically targeted at people or instances in which there’s reason to believe that there might be a problem,” writes Matthew Lacombe, an assistant professor at Barnard College. “So it’s not like a blanket rule that treats gun owners like a particular class of citizen.”

Americans came for the gun culture, but they’re not staying for the gun violence

Guns are a fixed feature of American society, with 44% living in households with guns and 64% believing guns make them safer. Since the revolution that formed this nation, Americans have always signed up for the gun life, but they never signed up for the mass shootings and wanton slaughter that have marred our recent decades.

Yet the corporate oligarchy stepped in to influence our political system to the detriment of actual Americans, just as it has in so many other industries. From Boeing’s egregious corner-cutting leading to sections of airplanes falling off mid-flight to Purdue Pharma intentionally hooking millions on OxyContin to Smith & Wesson, Springfield, and Ruger using their exorbitant profits to make it impossible for Americans to get the gun regulations they overwhelmingly agree on, it seems America’s doom is sealed in her abusive marriage to corporate power. 

I think it’s time she filed for divorce.

The post Corporate capture, the Covenant shooting, and a crippled system we must change appeared first on Tennessee Lookout.