Boys,
I have been thinking about the recent senseless act of
violence lately, hours of thinking. Where do I stand and what are the
solutions? I said solutions, plural, because there is not one single thing that
will end this ongoing crisis. I am not a "bleeding heart liberal" nor
am I a "bleeding heart conservative". I like to think of myself as
someone who has common sense and plenty of it. I try not to let my emotions
rule my decisions and like to get as many facts as I can before I make a
decision one way or another.
I am going to take a common sense approach to my belief as
to what we as a country and a society should do and what the problems may be.
I heard someone say this the other day and it struck me, “The
coarseness of American Society is a contributing factor to gun violence in
schools”. What is the “coarseness” that
has crept into our mores and norms? Where did it begin?
The coarseness begins at home. Parents of children today fail to teach kids
respect, kindness and humility. We have
become a society where everyone is each other’s equal, where children and young
adults, see adults as their peers and not as their leaders. We do not need to be our children’s friends,
they have those, we need to guide our children to make good choices, right
choices and to show them when they have made bad choices. We need to teach our children that it is ok
to fail and make mistakes because that is how you learn and grow. Our children should not get participation
trophies, because often it is not enough just to participate.
As adults and young adults, no one talks to each other anymore. There is no personal connection. Email,
texting and social media, have done away with the need to get up and go into
someone’s office, or to pick up the phone and call someone and use social
skills to interact with another human being.
This lack of personal interaction has led to coarseness because you are
no longer communicating with a living breathing being, you are communicating
with a thing. A thing, which holds no
intrinsic value that if you drop, throw, or otherwise mistreat has no feelings
and no expressions. It cannot be hurt.
It may be broken, but you can always go buy another one.
What about banning guns?
That is a solution right? With the highest per capita gun ownership (101)
in the world, it is not a realistic expectation to ban all of the guns in the
US. Some groups would have you believe
that no guns be banned and you should be able to get any gun freely, but in reality,
you cannot get fully automatic guns without an extensive background check, and licensing
from the federal government. I have recently read that we have the God
given right to own guns. The last I knew
the Constitution was written by a group of old white men who feared their
government, and did not know how the great democratic experiment would work
out. To be clear however, I support the
second amendment. I do believe that I
have the right to defend my family. Do I
need an AR-15 to do it? No. Does anyone
need an AR-15 to do it? No. Do I own an
AR-15? Yes. It is a tremendously fun gun
to shoot, lightweight, endlessly customizable, accurate and cheap. Cheap to
shoot and cheap to buy. I have thought
about getting rid of it in light of recent events, but I do not want it to fall
into the wrong hands by selling it. I
will not just turn it into the police to be destroyed because I paid good money
for it, and common sense dictates that would be silly. However, if the local, state or federal government
offered to buy it back for what I paid for it and then destroy it, consider it
sold. The development of the .223 round
began in the late 50’s at the direction of the US army for the sole purpose of
killing people as efficiently as possible, and if not killing them, creating
horrible wounds that would eventually kill people (read this article). One of the requirement was that the new
bullet needed to penetrate US steel helmets at 500 yards. Nowhere in the specifications does it say the
bullet needs to kill a white tail deer at 500 yards. So trying to say you need it, as a hunting
weapon is bullshit there are plenty of other guns out there that will fill that
role easily.
Another false solution that I have heard lately is to arm
the teachers. Arming teachers they say
is necessary because we protect money and jewelry, and other valuable items
with armed guards so why not protect our most precious commodity with armed guards. Here is why:
Because if we need to resort to protecting our children with armed guards
then we have truly failed as a society.
Hurting children is and should be the most taboo of crimes we can
perpetrate as humans. Even criminals
look upon child molesters and child abusers as the lowest of the low. School shootings are children killing
children—the shooter has more than likely been desensitized to violence due to
video games, or movies, may have mental health problems, or been ostracized by
their peers the number one prevention and solution is for the parent to be
involved in their children’s lives.
