Day after day of gun violence in America. Nothing changes

BY MARK Z. BARABAK, Los Angeles Times Columnist

MAY 16, 2022 12:46 PM PT

Nothing changed after moviegoers were slaughtered in Aurora. Nothing changed after children were massacred in Newtown, after worshipers were killed inside a church in Charleston, after office workers were mowed down at a holiday party in San Bernardino.

I wrote those words in June 2017, after Republican members of Congress were attacked by a gunman on a softball field just outside the nation’s capital.

Nothing changed.

Except, of course, there have been a great many more mass shootings, adding Atlanta; Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; El Paso; Pittsburgh; Boulder, Colo.; Parkland, Fla.; and many other cities, large and small, to the sanguinary toll.

The latest violent spasms came this past weekend in Buffalo and Orange County, where 11 people were killed and seven were wounded while, respectively, shopping at the supermarket and enjoying an after-church lunch. Mondays used to be the day to recount the big sports news from the weekend. Now we tote up gun carnage.

Nothing has changed, except a loosening of gun laws throughout much of the country, where promiscuity is a celebrated virtue when it comes to the availability of firearms.

In San Francisco last week a federal appeals court ruled that California’s ban on selling semiautomatic rifles to anyone under 21 violates the constitutional right to bear arms for self-defense. It’s impermissible to buy a six-pack, but OK to wield a knockoff AK-47.

The shooter in Buffalo was 18.

For days now, the airwaves and social media have been filled with the voices of young people, thick with righteousness and anger, vowing never again.

I wrote those words in February 2018, days after a gunman slaughtered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

I posed a question then: Will the student-led protests against gun violence dramatically change politics and lead the president and Congress to act in a way that other explosions of fury and grief — after Virginia Tech, Aurora, Newtown, Charleston, San Bernardino, Orlando and Las Vegas did not?

The answer is no.

There have been many attempts to pass national gun control laws since 1994, when Democratic lawmakers led by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein pushed through a ban on the possession, manufacture, use and importation of 19 types of semiautomatic firearms. Many Democrats paid by losing their seats that November. The ban was allowed to lapse 10 years later.

The debate over guns and gun control in many ways distills the very essence of politics today, where opposing sides don’t simply differ on philosophical or ideological grounds but fail to agree on even the basic facts.

It also underscores the power of one of the country’s mightiest special-interest groups, the National Rifle Assn., and its hold over Republican lawmakers whose greatest fear is not losing an election to a Democrat but, given gerrymandering, a Republican primary opponent with an even harder-line view on guns.

That is one reason Congress has failed to pass a law requiring universal background checks, even though the overwhelming majority of Americans express their support. Notwithstanding that fact, the overwhelming majority of Americans don’t vote in individual GOP primaries.

I wrote those words back in 2017. Though the NRA has struggled with internal scandal, the fundamental politics surrounding gun control remain the same.

The sway of the NRA and other groups opposing tougher gun laws is also a function of one of the most fundamental tenets of politics: intensity and persistent engagement matters far more than raw numbers.

Supporters of unfettered gun rights may be “a minority of the population but they have a degree of loyalty and emotional attachment to their movement that isn’t reflected on the opposing side,” said Robert Spitzer, a professor of political science at State University of New York at Cortland.

“It’s only when the mass shooting occurs that the public pays real attention,” said Spitzer, who has written five books on gun policy. “But the sentiment doesn’t last long. Most people turn their attention back to other things, as does the media, and soon it’s back to business as usual.”

I wrote those words in 2018.

Nothing has changed.

This is the last column on gun violence I intend to write for some time, maybe ever. What’s the point? It’s all repetition, and that repetition is maddening and sickening.

People die, horribly and needlessly, and the status quo abides.

You can be sure a great many more mass shootings will follow and the toll will keep growing ever higher. Barring a fundamental shift, Congress will fail to pass meaningful gun control legislation.

Nothing changes.

Cinco de Mayo

New Vehicles must average 40 mpg by 2026, up from 28 mpg

For the current model year, standards enacted under Trump require the fleet of new vehicles to get just under 28 miles per gallon in real-world driving. The new requirements increase gas mileage by 8% per year for model years 2024 and 2025 and 10% in the 2026 model year.

The Department of Transportation released tailpipe pollution standards Friday that would require average fuel efficiency of new cars and light trucks to reach 49 miles per gallon in less than four years.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which shares responsibility for overseeing the standards and issued its own companion rule in December, estimates its tightened emissions rules would achieve roughly 40 miles per gallon in real-world conditions, up from about 32 miles per gallon under the Trump administration.

Ford, on Friday, noted its history of standing with California on mileage standards during the Trump years. In a statement, Chief Policy Officer and General Counsel Steven Croley said the company “applauds NHTSA’s efforts to strengthen fuel economy standards and create consistent benchmarks to accelerate our national transition toward a zero-emissions transportation future.”

Auto dealers say more stringent requirements drive up prices and push people out of an already expensive new-car market. NHTSA projects that the new rules will raise the price of a new vehicle in the 2029 model year by $1,087.

Automakers are investing billions of dollars to develop and build electric vehicles but say government support is needed to get people to buy them. The companies want government tax credits to reduce prices as well as more money for EV charging stations to ease anxiety over running out of juice.

I just bought a new car with a conventional internal combustion engine. The car has an EPA mileage rating of 31 MPG average city/highway.

Car manufacturers will be pushing hybrids. Most likely no longer offering internal combustion vehicles. For those of us who can’t afford the high price of all electric cars called EVs, the solution is probably going to be buying a hybrid. These cars typically cost $2,000 to $3,000 more than comparable conventional cars, although the difference in purchase price is often offset by fuel savings.

The 2022 Honda CR–V Hybrid can achieve up to an EPA-estimated 40 mpg city / 35 mpg highway. By 2026 the mpg will most likely be even better. The current price is about $3,000 more than the combustion engine model.