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Recently I outlined an article in my head and even searched for a title pic of civilians dead on the ground from gunshot wound in a war zone – ripped up by military assault weapon fire. I realized the uproar some of the graphic pics I found would cause and decided it was a bad idea.

Having served as a Marine I was of course taught history of many of the Corps’ battles including the Pacific. Tarawa was an epic one for a lot of bad reasons (mistakes on our part) but we prevailed. After the battle, Generals back in DC decided to release some pictures of the dead to newspapers. They were actually pretty tame. Some wounds were apparent but none of the post battle photos that were actually gruesome were given to the press. The point is that although the folks on the home front saw newsreels and read stories (good ones by talented and dedicated war correspondents) it was past time for them understand something of the cost of war. Beyond a Gold Star(s) in a neighbor’s window and/or knowing grieving relatives of the fallen.

It created an uproar including letters to Generals in DC to the effect of “you murdered my son” and so on. That subsided, and one can say it had the desired effect. The country realized what it was going to take to win against enemies that HAD to be defeated and that the cost was going to go well beyond dollars.

Someday perhaps we’ll have someone like Emmet Till’s mother who insisted on that open casket and allowed photos. Even cleaned up and partially “repaired” it was clear he’d suffered horribly. It shocked the nation as it should have. I never had kids but having worked for a funeral home back in my hometown and later on the cemetery side of things (in the DC area some years after active duty in the Corps) I became all too familiar with the devasted lives caused by gun violence. I also saw bodies on slabs that had been shot. It’s an ugly sight to be sure. I know I can’t imagine the sacrifice it would take for a parent or small group of parents of kids murdered in a school shooting, or even if not kids family members of people who’d died in say a shopping mall or workplace shooting to release photos of their loved ones lying there dead – shattered by close quarters gunfire. Especially from an AR type weapon. (the much higher muzzle velocity creates a lot more damage than the Soviet AK model weapons which is still pretty awful)

Only then I think will the public become so shocked, so outraged that within a single election cycle almost anyone who votes against real, meaningful gun control including banning certain weapons will get voted out. Even then I hold out little hope for modifying the second amendment to clarify the original intent and make clear government from the feds on down can regulate weapons more deadly than our founders imagined in their worst nightmares.