c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)

(UNDATED) Last week Americans got a chance to see just how corrupt and hypocritical the Bible-thumping, self-righteous, moralistic Republican Congress really is.

Congress, always owned by the National Rifle Association, has now sold its soul completely to that evil organization. Astonishingly, it used the Columbine High School massacre to weaken gun control laws instead of tightening them, all the while insisting it was dealing with the problems of juvenile crime. The Republicans were aided and abetted by some 40 turncoat Democrats who also sold their souls.

These men, who impeached President Clinton for private immorality, are serenely confident they can escape untarnished by the public immorality of their behavior.

For its part, the NRA has frustrated the clear will of the American people for decades. One wonders how many more Columbines will have to happen before the public turns out the rascals. If I were Bill Bradley, I’d run against the gun lobby. And I’d throw in the tobacco lobby as well.

The Republicans blame Columbine on the media, the Democrats on guns.

In fact, the mass of research evidence shows violent films have only a brief, short-term effect on young people _ not enough to get a gun and go out and mow down their peers. In Japan, where films are far more violent, there are no OK Corrals in high school libraries. Why? Because Japanese teens have no access to guns.

Are young people troubled to the point of murder by the films they see or the programs they watch or the video games they play? Seems reasonable, doesn’t it? But you must ask why so very few kids turn into killers. Is it not more likely that the emotionally disturbed young people turn to violent films and games because they are already time bombs waiting to explode, time bombs undetected by indifferent parents and timid school administrators?

Films are a wonderful scapegoat for youthful violence. Blame the movies and you excuse yourself, whether you’re a parent or a professional educational administrator or a politician or Charlton Heston and his NRA. Even President Clinton demands teens show IDs before they are admitted to R films.

This is perhaps smart politics, but it is not honest. Surely the president knows most teens have or can easily get IDs proclaiming they’re 21. IDs to prove they’re 18 are a pushover.

Moreover, Democratic liberals in Congress are hypocritical in suggesting their own post-Columbine proposals would have prevented the high school shootings or will have any real effect on the flow of deadly weapons in our society. They are not ready to call for the draconian measures necessary to disarm America. And that is the only way further mass killings in high school can be stopped.

Columbine may be only a cloud, small as a man’s hand, on the horizon, a bare hint of what can and will happen when other sickies complete their plans to kill a hundred or so of their schoolmates. Is anyone in Congress stupid enough to think such plans are not being made today by troubled young men and women who want to top Columbine’s toll of death? Does anyone, with the possible exception of the insufferable Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., believe posting the Ten Commandments will stop them?

How many more Columbines will have to happen before Americans realize how foolish and dangerous it is to be the only country in the Western world that permits kids to arm themselves to the teeth? How many more will it take before the NRA is condemned for its opposition to tough gun control? How many hundreds or even thousands of kids will have to die before Americans decide that the country has to disarm?

My guess is that mass murders of young men and women will go on indefinitely without any meaningful action in Congress. The deaths of young people are a small price to pay for the power of the NRA and the timidity and corruption in Congress.

DEA END GREELEY