January 18, 2011
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Addiction Or Obsession
So it has happened again: another senseless, tragic massacre of people. Of course, I speak only of the recent shootings in Tuscan. Mass shootings like this seem to happen several times a year in America. And several times a year, people pretend to be upset and bothered by it, only to let it fade away into the dustbins of history, forgetting all about it until the next shooting. What makes it so sad, is that people don’t seem to care enough to invoke any real change, so guess what, it keeps happening again and again.
A lot of pointless time and talk has been devoted in the time since the shooting to the overblown rhetoric of politics, in spite of the fact that clearly, this was not a shooting that was inspired by something Sarah Palin or any of the other blowhards on the right said or did. People want to find a way to drum up controversy and attention by blaming it on politics, but the reality is that politics had about as much to do with it as the weather. What it comes down to, is, guns; our country’s obsession and addiction to guns.
My question is, when is enough enough? When do we get to the point when we take drastic steps to prevent these things from happening in the future? Some might say I’m writing this out of emotion or I’m having a knee jerk reaction to the shootings, but is it a knee jerk reaction if it is something that continually happens? The NRA and gun lovers always hide behind the second amendment and even go as far as to say that these things wouldn’t’t happen if MORE people had guns, but that doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense. Realistically, even if everybody there had a gun that day in Tuscan, there still would have been at least one person shot. Also, gun sales have soared since Obama took office, yet there have still been several mass shootings since he took office,
The entire story is tragic in itself. But for me, the most tragic of all of the stories is the nine year old little girl who was killed. Of course, she is one of only many children and people shot to death each DAY in America. While I certainly do believe that people have a right to defend themselves, how many times does it have to happen before people realize that human lives are more important than people’s rights? Sure, we have the right to own guns, but are that any solace to the parents of a dead child?
What is frustrating is that outlawing guns is probably not the answer. Guns are far too engrained in our society that prohibition of firearms would never work. There needs to be an overwhelming shift in the importance of guns in our society to effect any real change. Guns are everywhere: T.V, movies, music, athletes, politics, and everywhere and anywhere in between. And it spreads across all types of people, rich, poor, black, white, Hispanic, young, old, it really doesn’t matte the background, guns have about as widespread popularity as drinking.
How many more times does this need to happen before the country finally wakes up?
I wrote this last night and for a posting today. In the day since I wrote this, there was another school shooting, this time in Los Angeles. Granted, this one appears to be an accident and only injured two. But, it goes to show you that it never ends.
Comments (5)
I think even if guns were banned, there would still be a black market and there would still be shootings. Maybe they would be less, i don’t know. Did you know that 9 year old little girl was born on September 11, 2001? I hate when children are killed…they are so innocent.
I agree with you, there would still be a black market and I’m not saying they should be banned, that would not solve the problem. But, I do think there needs to be a whole culture shift in the way guns are thought of.
Yeah, I heard she was born on 9/11, very sad. She is also the granddaughter of a guy who used to manage the Phillies and was later the GM for my Cubs.
How do you propose we make this culture shift happen?
Sure, it’s a problem, but the lack of solution is more of a problem than the problem itself. There’s nothing we can really do about it.
I refuse to accept that there is nothing we can do about it. The only thing I know for sure is that I am certainly about the furthest thing from an expert on the subject. I do believe, however, that in addition to some major changes in the law, there also needs to be a complete cultural shift of some kind that takes the emphasis off of guns and the association people have that guns equal power. People see it on movies and television and everywhere else in life to the point where they feel they are only whole if they have a firearm. I could be 100% wrong on the whole situation, except that other country’s don’t have the same problems with shootings that we have.
That’s what I mean. How do you force a cultural shift to happen? Because it generally doesn’t happen that way. It’s obvious that it needs to happen, but, as of yet, no one has figured out how to force cultural changes that I’m aware of. Until they do, there’s nothing we can do about it.