Saying that we should turn the other way will solve nothing. But saying we need tighter gun control, or we need this government service or that regulation, or whatever, really does nothing either.
Oh yes, it puts a "Band Aid" on the problem, but does not solve the fundamental problem. Furthermore, are murders fundamentally different than they were say 50 or 100 years ago? We still have disturbed people committing atrocious crimes, just as we have for years and years. Yes, the scale may be larger and certainly the publicity is greater, but scale and publicity are caused by our society and technology, perhaps not by any fundamental change.
John Wayne Gacy killed at least 33 boys in the early 1970's. Richard Speck killed 8 nursing students in one night in the 1960's. (Neither of them used guns.) There are many more examples, both with and without guns.
Yet there may be fundamental changes at work. Have we not continually "depersonalized" our interaction and our society through the use of technology? You need not look far to see many people using Facebook, Twitter and texting to replace genuine face to face (or at least voice to voice via telephone) interaction.
People are screaming for attention, so their crime becomes "bigger and badder" than the last one as a way of gaining notoriety. Note: our communications technology and media hype seem to inflate the magnitude and spread the knowledge of all such crimes against others with increasing "efficiency."
Perhaps we should tell our media and "news" (entertainment) organizations that they cannot report such crimes. Or maybe each such organization should be given an allotment of time, say 60 or 120 minutes that they can use for any one such crime. Newspapers could be given a "column inch" allotment. After all, all of the media contribute to the problem, but only a few gun owners ever use their guns for radically irresponsible reasons.
And to what extent have we taken personal responsibility out of our individual "equation" for living. Is this the cause of such activity? "I am not responsible for what I do to others."
The one time "safety net" protects us from all evils now, even those of our own making. If someone chooses not to work, they need not worry, there are plenty of government programs (funded by those who do work) to provide for them. To some extent, our global society has become one of "It is not my job." Can we replace that with a new mantra:"I am responsible for myself and my family. It is my job to provide for us. I am responsible for my own actions."
RB:
RB has reminded me
that “no one needs an assault rifle” for any legitimate purpose. And
there are “other forms of gun control that could be implemented without
infringing on freedom. But we still need to solve the fundamental
problem, not just bandage it up.” He is right.
MG:
My personal opinion is – if it
isn’t a gun, it will be a knife, bomb or rope. It is not the weapons that
kill – it is the people who kill. Mental illness causing people to be
ticking time bombs themselves? Why have we closed so many facilities to
help families with unstable loved ones? Why are we seeing so many more
mental issues in children? ADHD? AUTISM in many different
forms? Other personality DISORDERS? Mental issues, (Autism, in
particular) is growing rapidly – look it up!
Get to the bottom of those
things, and try to come up with a solution for early detection and treatment
before these young people ‘explode.’ 4 Shooting sprees in the US in the
last few years all have one thing in common – committed by fellas in their
twenties with MENTAL ISSUES/PERSONALITY DISORDERS. (same with the young
fella who killed the Coach locally.)
In my humble opinion, focusing
on gun control is just a sideshow to take our focus off and prevent us from
fixing the real issue – mental illness…
DB:
We can address all of the effects, but unless we address the cause (true cause), we are like using a sheet of plastic as a blanket. Yes we are covered, but are still cold. Mental illness is the cause. The effects are mentally ill wanting to hurt people, buying guns, and destroying lives. Lets take away the guns and we still have mentally ill wanting to destroy lives. Hmmm. If I am mentally ill and want to hurt people and can't find a gun, do I discontinue wanting to hurt others or find another way????
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