Gun Thoughts
A firearm is an instrument of violence. It's design and function is to propel a small projectile with such force that should it encounter any resistance, organic or otherwise, it will act in a most penetrative fashion. In short; firearms poke holes in things and, given the requisite circumstance, can be used to end life. That's a pretty fair and objective observation.
Violence is an instrument or consequence of emotion. Retribution, jealousy, desperation, fear, etc. A cognitive response to ones surroundings.
Psychopathy aside if the basic foundation of violence is the environmental effect on cognition and the consequent action taken what thread of reason and logic should a society follow in coming to grips with and addressing the social fallout of such? Ah! Identify a singular, culturally inoffensive bogeyman. The firearm.
Violence is born of firearms... Wait, no, firearms cause violence... No that's not right either... Ah, societal/cultural effects cause violence which often manifests in crimes involving firearms. Right, good. Let's ban firearms...
A lazy attempt by inept policymakers to obfuscate away their constituents concerns regarding violent crime. Create a framework of blame and fear in an effort to stave off the political mire (i.e. a long term strategy that might help the country but won't fuel the ole re-election furnace) that entails addressing the economic, educational, cultural and racial disparities our societies face.
A political Easy Button.
2 comments:
America's reputation as the 'lead nation of the free world' would be raised significantly through the ban of fireweapons - and the abolishment of the death penalty. America is rich enough to afford the same social standards as Europe, instead you have 10 times more people per capita in prison than we have. Nevertheless you have the highest crime rates in the world. Social security is the root of social peace.
2020, thanks for the comment.
What "social standards" do you refer to in terms of those that America should pursue?
I don't disagree regarding the death penalty, though my position is a bit less "how the world will accept us" and a bit more jingoistic.
As for your claim of America maintaining the "highest crime rates in the world" I must respectfully disagree. I'll provide the statistics in a subsequent post as this erroneous belief seems wide spread and warrants remedy.
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