Mass shootings come and go routinely in our chaotic, broken society and what I find the most alarming is how desensitized to death, madness and tragedy we’ve become, many have grown to feel that this is business as usual or worse the price of our “freedom.” That in and of itself is a big part of the complicated problem. As a result so many of us distort simple, common sense gun control ideas and practices such as a universal background check, waiting periods, gun safety course requirements and the assault weapons ban to big government assaulting personal liberties. What’s more is that American identity that has become increasingly intertwined with our broad gun culture and the ideological/political attachment to guns persists. I don’t know about you but I’m sickened and disturbed by how some romanticize and worship guns. I believe guns should be had by civilians only as a safety tool for an individual or family and I am taken aback when I see people kiss their guns, take their guns out to lunch, etc. and upload it to social media as if its completely healthy and normal.
The 2nd amendment, by stating we have the right to bear arms, gave birth to all of this and was put in place by the founding fathers after fighting a bloody war against the ever so oppressive imperial British empire. But the purpose was very different from what we understand gun rights to be today. They created the 2nd amendment to empower citizens to form a militia to fight against any potential future tyrannical regimes.
I’m a hard lined progressive democrat as you’d expect but I disagree with many of my fellow liberals when it comes to the notion that a few gun control measures will completely mitigate an insanely complex problem. The problem transcends guns so the solution must be sufficiently far reaching. An important part of the problem is the mental health crisis in America, unaffordable prescription drugs contribute to this but on the whole the mental health care system has many shortcomings. So we need to invest more in research for psychotic disorders like schizophrenia and others as well as improving inpatient mental health services. Additionally we need to incentivize big Pharma to keep costs down on mental health medication.
Its a safe bet that anyone making the conscious decision to kill innocent civilians on a large scale has some type of psychiatric/psychological condition in many cases anti social personality disorder or who are better known to us as psychopaths or sociopaths. And in most cases there are warning signs of a potential offender in early childhood; behaviors like torturing or killing animals. And if parents are well versed about the warning signs of anti social personality disorder the likelier they are to get their child help. It always makes me wonder if Dennis Rader’s (BTK) parents had that kind of foresight, would his victims be alive today? So we should either mandate or incentivize parents who are going to give birth to, adopt or foster a child to take and pass a course on how to identify and treat this condition. I really believe that if we get these people help in their formative years before they can hurt anyone it could very well save lives.
Another very important piece of the puzzle is the National Rifle Association better known as the NRA which is the most powerful and high profile gun lobbyist group. And they have used their position in this country to hijack gun policy in Congress and in our government more broadly. The majority of Americans support gun control but it has become increasingly difficult to introduce and enact gun control measures. It may be because they have huge purchasing power in fact in 2016 the NRA spent $3.1 million lobbying and that figure increased to $4.1 million in 2017. But beyond that they are fear mongers who happily fuel the false narrative of the liberals, big government, and the anti-Americans who are “coming to take your guns,” without regard to how that dialogue divides our country even more. And these things as well as many other elements of their extreme behavior negatively influence the good judgement of those partial to gun rights.
But amidst all the darkness was a flash of light in the form of the bright, brave and courageous young souls, who were mainly survivors of a horrific school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that started March For Our Lives. They and children even younger than them had more wisdom and clarity on gun safety than many adults, and more importantly they didn’t let their age hold them back from getting directly involved in the political process. As I watched their rally and talk show appearances I was in awe and just like that I was a believer in the power of young people coming together for a unified cause again. Also its because its who we are, it’s practically in the DNA of our country. Young people have been at the center of so many movements that precipitate social progress like the anti-war movement protesting the Vietnam war that started on college campuses, many facets of the 20th century feminist movement, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which also started on college campuses and served as the 2nd most important arm of the black civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.
So despite it all, this gives me tremendous hope for our country’s future, and as horror ensues all around us I am determined to arm myself with knowledge and my unflinching optimism.
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