Gun Violence, Again!

Yes, again. More deaths. Multiple shootings at one location. Schools, parks, nightclubs, churches and shopping centers. Wherever people gather, there are the targets for sick minds. Sick minds that have guns and ammo.

It is not the gun’s fault. It is the fault of the user of the gun. It is the fault of a society that does not provide mental health care sufficient to avoid twisted minds and violent ends. But then, no society can possibly end all violence and twisted minds. It is the nature of society that twisted minds will be present. Against the norm, they are; so non normal they ‘see’ the social order as a place of injustice and powerlessness. The equalizer is the voice of the sufferer. The voice is magnified by guns. The rest happens in due course.

We have argued over this issue for many lifetimes. The US Constitution was written in 1787. It was ratified a few years later. It took time for citizens to approve the new document. It made sense at the time, filled with compromises that meant no one got what they wanted, but in the main we got a nation ready and able to function.

235 years later we still don’t fully approve of the Constitution, but we live with it. We have learned to make do with the help of the Supreme Court however faulty its history.

Somewhere along the way our nation lost its moral and functional compass. Commonsense leaked out of our leaky house. “A well regulated militia” has taken on as many meanings as there are people with an axe to grind. Today it means everyone must have the freedom to have and to bear arms. Any codification of that ‘right’ is viewed illegal.

Nonsense. All manner of things are regulated in a complicated society. It is the regulation that provides safety, stability and order. I posit that we have none of those.

Isn’t it about time we did? I don’t begrudge anyone’s right to own and bear arms. I do begrudge their obstinacy to improve on a bad situation. What can be done by all of us to reduce gun violence?

Yes, there are causes of this violence that have much to do about poverty and powerlessness. That would be a good starting point to reduce gun violence. But the mental health issues involved are not as easily addressed. Don’t you think it is time to try to address them?

Meanwhile, what commonsense steps can be taken to reduce gun violence until the other solutions have time to have an effect?

Just asking.

May 20, 2022

 

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