I have seen some truly staggering, mind-blowing (not in a positive way) Facebook posts regarding the subject - all from people who identify as proud Americans, and who feel that their country is, in a special way, exceptional.
One of them, from The Gun Hub Facebook page, showed a picture of a burly, scary looking American soldier with a very full beard and a solemn expression, and it suggested that we should simply put three armed veterans in every school. It went on to mention that there are thousands of unemployed veterans who would love nothing better than the task of protecting American children.
Another simply showed a picture of the school shooter in Florida in the process of being arrested, as he at least appeared to be looking directly into the camera, which was surely taken from above, aboard a helicopter overhead.
And this one spoke in very blunt language, taking the first person and suggesting not to try and tell them that this is a gun control issue, or "Don't tell me it's a gun control issue. Don't attempt to "even hint that it's the NRA or Trump that is causing this. This.. THIS is a mental health issue..."
This post went on to suggest that the fault of mass shootings lay with overly sensitized youth, and poetically suggested that this violence was due to the "pussification" of America.
No argument about the shooter, or every shooter, having mental health issues. That is so obvious as to not warrant any serious debate. Many gun advocates, however, seem to argue this as a checkmate argument, as if anyone were seriously disputing this. No one is. Clearly, it does not fall under normal behavior to prepare for a mass murder for weeks or months, and then to go through with it. What can you say about Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, or Seung Hui Cho, or James Holmes, or Adam Lanza, or Stephen Paddock, or Nikolas Cruz, that would make any of them seem normal? Absolutely nobody would suggest that they were normal, although in the case of Paddock, he apparently seemed quite normal to almost everyone he knew him, until he killed 58 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
Clearly, no one is suggesting that these are normal people, and many people probably saw some disturbing signs which, if reported or treated, may have averted the unthinkable tragedies that these men committed. But in the case of, say, Stephen Paddock, how does the supposed whiny quality of the younger generation apply, exactly? He was well off, if not outright wealthy, and lived at least a semi-charmed life. He had a girlfriend, and obviously had enough money not only to buy his mass arsenal, but also to see her off to safety in the Philippines, and to give her a sizable sum of money, to boot. He owned his own home, and could afford regular trips to Las Vegas. To my understanding, that did not qualify him as a whiner or someone who was hungry for government handouts. Surely, since he was well past the age of 50, he was past whatever high school issues he may, or may not, have gone through. And yet, he decided to acquire a mass arsenal of guns, customized them with bump stocks, and then randomly shot at a large crowd assembled for a concert, shooting hundreds and killing several dozen people, most of whom he did not know. There were absolutely no signs that anyone saw, and so perplexed were Las Vegas police about any possible motive for Paddock doing what he did, that they put billboards up asking anyone with information for help.
Indeed, no signs that he was about to explode or go crazy - or rather, had gone crazy, or perhaps always was crazy - existed. Perhaps that allowed him to disguise his true intentions, and make preparations for what wound up being the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. But again, the easy access to guns sure helped, did it not? Again, this guy acquired dozens of guns, and had several bum stocks which, in effect, concerted his AR-15 into a virtual machine gun. The people down below who were sprayed with bullets had no chance. And gun advocates who argue their rationale about "good guys with a gun" being the only thing that can stop a "bad guy with a gun" clearly cannot seriously claim that anyone with a gun down below would have made much of a difference at all in Las Vegas, Not with the shooter 32 stories up.
Here's the thing, though. While that attempt to angrily shut down any talk of even modest gun control measures as ridiculous on the face of it, the fact of the matter is that the logic that Americans have on guns runs counter to not only to what would seem logical, but also to what the rest of the world not only believes, but understands to be true based upon experience. Most of the result of the world believes that less guns translates to less gun violence. The logic that millions of Americans believe in (although by no means anywhere near a majority - do not let anyone tell you that a majority of Americans believe in this argument), by contrast, suggests that the solution for gun violence is for more Americans to own guns. According to them, that is the "only possible solution."
I have heard that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing, over and over again, and expect a different result. Well, even the most modest and reasonable gun measures keep getting shot down - you'll pardon the wording there, but I mean it almost literally - every time that it is even hinted at. Again, that Facebook post suggesting that you should not even think of mentioning or hinting at gun control measures as a possible solution to the ridiculous gun violence in this country. So, we can probably say that in modern times, the United States, as a nation, has never seriously tried tighter gun measures. Some cities and states have, sure. But guns can easily cross state lines without much worry about border checks or being stopped by police. And the sales of guns keep spiking, literally, after every single mass shooting that this nation has - and it has had quite a few of them. Indeed, we have seen more guns effectively work as "the solution" to gun violence, and guess what? It has not worked.
Shocker, huh?
Meanwhile, gun violence demonstrably decreased in nations that took action and began to make access to guns more difficult.
Yes, other countries know better than the United States on this issue, although they have less mass shootings than we do. Other countries also actually do something when things like this happen to them. It truly shakes these nations up, and they feel an urgency to take action and make sure things like this do not happen again.
What actions do they take? The major change that they make is to make it far more difficult to acquire guns, for one. This is quite an unpopular notion here in the United States, and many of the skeptics believe that any limitations to gun access not only is an infringement on a beloved right guaranteed in the Constitution (the second amendment of the Bill of Rights), but that it would be tantamount to buying a one way ticket to a fascist/communist dictatorship (because far too many Americans believe that Communism and fascism are one and the same, even though the bloodiest war in history was fought between Communists and fascists, largely on ideological differences).
But guess what? It works. Statistics have shown that it works, because gun violence rates went down, and are demonstrably much lower than they are here in the United States. The best thing? These countries did not see the rise of bloody dictatorships, complete with hordes of unarmed people being crammed into cattle cars and sent to death camps, as fear-mongerers here keep insisting is a certainty should access to guns be limited, even slightly. In fact, it seems to me that the United States is closer to being a blatant dictatorship than most of the other industrialized nations of the world, especially with a man like Trump and his cronies in charge in Washington.
So, gun control measures have worked elsewhere. It is not like it is an unknown answer to some remarkably challenging question. There are lunatics in other countries, and they figured out that if you make it virtually impossible for them to get their hands on guns, gun violence goes down.
Yet here in the United States, we have grown so used to ignoring everything that happens outside of American borders - collectively, we hardly pay attention to what is going on on the inside, frankly - we conveniently ignore all of this. We act like it would be an unthinkable experiment, and a breach of constitutional rights, when the second amendment never actually says that American citizens have an unlimited right to bear arms. And tighter gun laws have worked in other countries. That leads to the inescapable conclusion that making guns more difficult - but far from impossible, especially for law-abiding citizens - to acquire would actually work to finally minimize gun violence.
What actions do they take? The major change that they make is to make it far more difficult to acquire guns, for one. This is quite an unpopular notion here in the United States, and many of the skeptics believe that any limitations to gun access not only is an infringement on a beloved right guaranteed in the Constitution (the second amendment of the Bill of Rights), but that it would be tantamount to buying a one way ticket to a fascist/communist dictatorship (because far too many Americans believe that Communism and fascism are one and the same, even though the bloodiest war in history was fought between Communists and fascists, largely on ideological differences).
But guess what? It works. Statistics have shown that it works, because gun violence rates went down, and are demonstrably much lower than they are here in the United States. The best thing? These countries did not see the rise of bloody dictatorships, complete with hordes of unarmed people being crammed into cattle cars and sent to death camps, as fear-mongerers here keep insisting is a certainty should access to guns be limited, even slightly. In fact, it seems to me that the United States is closer to being a blatant dictatorship than most of the other industrialized nations of the world, especially with a man like Trump and his cronies in charge in Washington.
So, gun control measures have worked elsewhere. It is not like it is an unknown answer to some remarkably challenging question. There are lunatics in other countries, and they figured out that if you make it virtually impossible for them to get their hands on guns, gun violence goes down.
Yet here in the United States, we have grown so used to ignoring everything that happens outside of American borders - collectively, we hardly pay attention to what is going on on the inside, frankly - we conveniently ignore all of this. We act like it would be an unthinkable experiment, and a breach of constitutional rights, when the second amendment never actually says that American citizens have an unlimited right to bear arms. And tighter gun laws have worked in other countries. That leads to the inescapable conclusion that making guns more difficult - but far from impossible, especially for law-abiding citizens - to acquire would actually work to finally minimize gun violence.
Yes, it would work.
And so naturally, it is considered crazy, "pie in the sky" thinking by dreamers, much like so many other good things that are commonplace in other industrialized nations, but which Americans think are wild, unrealistic, even Utopian ideas.
This manner of thinking is highly political, and it is one of numerous aspects of the belief in "American exceptionalism." How else can you believe that what works almost everywhere else could not possibly work here in the United States.
Frankly, I am tired of this self-serving, self-satisfied, and self-congratulatory idea of American exceptionalism. Seems to me that the only thing exceptional about this way of thinking is just how much it seems to be anchoring this nation's progress, at a time when we, as a nation, have found ourselves going from being the envy of the world in many ways, to the world's basketcase, and even laughingstock, in far too many ways these days.
But few of the ways in which we perplex the rest of the world with our thinking, and our inaction, are as blatant or as shocking as when it comes to gun violence.
And it does not appear that this is about to change anytime soon.
And so naturally, it is considered crazy, "pie in the sky" thinking by dreamers, much like so many other good things that are commonplace in other industrialized nations, but which Americans think are wild, unrealistic, even Utopian ideas.
This manner of thinking is highly political, and it is one of numerous aspects of the belief in "American exceptionalism." How else can you believe that what works almost everywhere else could not possibly work here in the United States.
Frankly, I am tired of this self-serving, self-satisfied, and self-congratulatory idea of American exceptionalism. Seems to me that the only thing exceptional about this way of thinking is just how much it seems to be anchoring this nation's progress, at a time when we, as a nation, have found ourselves going from being the envy of the world in many ways, to the world's basketcase, and even laughingstock, in far too many ways these days.
But few of the ways in which we perplex the rest of the world with our thinking, and our inaction, are as blatant or as shocking as when it comes to gun violence.
And it does not appear that this is about to change anytime soon.
Here is the full version of the ridiculous Facebook post that got me on this topic, wondering why Americans seem to think so differently about this, and many other, issues:
Don't tell me it's a gun control issue. Don't attempt to even hint that it's the NRA or Trump that is causing this. This.. THIS is a mental health issue that is NOT being addressed in America. We all had bullies in school, we had "weird" kids but they didn't gun down other students. THIS is directly related to a combination of mental health, Poor parenting, and the pussy-fication of this nation. When our children don't know what bathroom to use, are offended by everything, and see that they are exonerated from their actions because they can blame it on others.. THAT In itself IS the problem. Murder is illegal. Drugs are illegal. Yet they still happen. Calling for stronger gun laws isn't the answer. It isn't the gun.. start holding the perpetrator responsible, and the system that failed them.
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