The price we pay for freedom

This is what freedom costs these days:  $1870.00.  That’s the price the killer of 19 fourth graders and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, paid for the thing you see in the photograph above.

It is called the DDM4 V7, and it is sold by Daniel Defense, and I should note that on the website of the manufacturer of this military-level killing machine, a special note is made indicating that both “DDM4” and “V7” are trademarked.  You know why they’re trademarked?  So nobody else can produce one of these things and use the special military-style nomenclature that Daniel Defense uses. 

You see, M4 is the actual name of the real M4 Carbine used by the United States Army as well as other branches of the military.  It is the successor to the M16 and features an adjustable stock and other improvements to the original Army combat rifle.

Daniel Defense clearly wishes to trade on the military’s use of the M4 as its standard-issue combat weapon.  Daniel Defense wants its buyers to think of the DDM4 V7 as if they are buying a real M4 carbine.  That is why in its ads for the weapon, Daniel Defense frequently switches between shots of men carrying its DDM4 V7 in civilian clothes and real soldiers – or actors playing real soldiers – in full combat gear holding what appear to be real M4s.  “USE WHAT THEY USE” is the ad’s headline, obviously indicating that if you buy a Daniel Defense weapon, it’s the same, or as close as you can come, to buying a real military M4 Carbine.

There is no way to know if the Uvalde killer saw the Daniel Defense ads for the weapon he bought online directly from the manufacturer, but he saw the same photograph you’re looking at in this column, because I took the picture right off the same website he used to get his gun.  He had bought another AR-15 style rifle made by Smith and Wesson a few days previously but left it in his truck when he entered the school in Uvalde and began killing children.  He may have thought the DDM4 V7 made by Daniel Defense was the superior weapon.  We’ll never know.  But Daniel Defense clearly went out of its way to appeal to young men like the Uvalde killer with its advertising and the macho military style design of its rifle.

The DDM4 V7 is for sale on the Daniel Defense website today.  You can buy another version of the same rifle called the DDM4 V7 FDE, which has a desert tan trigger and receiver and fore-stock, for $2057.00, but it is temporarily out of stock.  Daniel Defense, however, will take orders and put you on the waiting list and notify you when the desert tan version of the weapon used by the Uvalde killer becomes available.

The ready availability of the DDM4 V7 and military style rifles like it are apparently the price we pay for what passes for “freedom” in this country today.  I had the news on all day watching coverage of the passage of a House bill of gun control measures that were described as “modest.” The vote was 223-204, largely along party lines.  Among other things, the bill would ban sales of AR-15 style rifles like the DDM4 V7 to persons under the age of 21, ban the sale of magazines that hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition, and establish regulations that would be more strict concerning the storage of guns in people’s houses.

All day, reporters on Capitol Hill described how difficult it is to “get these gun bills moving.”  Legislators came on camera and talked endlessly about “the need for meaningful gun reform” that would include “incremental background check reform” and a “red flag law.”

Then reporters from the Senate side of the Capitol came on and talked about how “difficult the talks are” between Republicans and Democrats about a “package” of measures intended to help stop school shootings that would include “increased school security” and “mental health reform,” whatever the hell that is.

Meanwhile, over on the Daniel Defense website, sales of all variations of its DDM4 V7 rifle, the same one used to kill 19 school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, remained brisk.  Models of the DDM4 V7 called the “Cobalt,” the “Tornado,” the “Deep Woods,” and the “Mil Spec +” are all out of stock because they are selling so fast.  Prices range from $1870.00 to $2057.00. 

In Uvalde, funerals for the children killed with the DDM4 V7 have proceeded.  Little children who had no choice whether to go to school or not paid an even steeper price for these military killing machines.

Because “meaningful gun reform” controlling their sale and distribution and storage and how many bullets they can fire is “so difficult to get moving.”

Because for 204 members of the House of Representatives and 50 Senators and the entire Republican Party, the freedom to buy these things is more important than the freedom of little children to stay alive.