This is a crude little diagram that I made back in 2013. And nothing has changed. I still feel the same way. There are a lot of different reasons for shootings and gun deaths. But there’s one common denominator — guns. Any effort not focused on the sale, distribution, and/or ownership of guns is ignoring the crux of the problem.
On a not-so-different day:
(From Pied Type, May 24, 2022)
Of course it’s the guns
Kyle Clark is a Denver broadcaster who speaks the truth whether people like it or not. He makes some excellent points following the massacre today at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
I love to read your blog, Colorado, because it reminds me of something that I can forget if I don’t – there are an awful lot of Americans who are sane. An awful lot who are nice, ordinary people. An awful lot who think just like I do (sorry .. that’s being pretty unfair to you guys !). Unless I can turn to Pied Type I will be completely influenced by our own rabid media, who seem not to want me to be so reminded ..
I can certainly imagine how America must look to outside observers. It doesn’t look that great to those of us on the inside, either. Especially on days like today. But so far, the good guys still outnumber the bad guys. (I have to believe that, you understand.) Check back after next year’s election, and we’ll both know which way the country is going.
Yes
If only it were otherwise …
Oh – I forgot to say that your Venn diagram is actually quite impressive !!
Thank you. It taxed my limited skills, and the circles around the outside should all be the same size, perfectly round, and evenly spaced. But I decided to quit before I pushed a wrong button and ruined it all. The annoying problem today is that I dug up the illustration late last night, but when I wanted to add a link today, I couldn’t find the post again. 🙁
I have written so many letters about the gun problem. I want people to just start saying… It’s the guns, stupid!… because it is such a self-evident truth. This is absolutely insane that people are still ginning up ever and ever more outrageous deflections and redirects when there simply is no other explanation. I was thinking of all the times these mass shooting intersected with my little one life, and it is hard to fathom how people function who have been in an actual mass shooting event.
I agree with you 100%. Spineless legislators know full well that guns, guns, guns are the problem, but they don’t want to buck the gun lobby. It’s so much easier (and more profitable) to keep talking about mental health, parental supervision, proper gun storage, etc. Deflect, deflect, deflect. At least we once, briefly, had a prohibition on assault-style rifles. Wimps didn’t even have the backbone to keep that law in place.
Ironically, I’m reading the latest Robert Galbraith (who is J. K. Rowling) novel, and it is a about an extreme cult. The horrific pressures, gaslighting, abuse, and absolute adherence to the message of the cult required by the members sure seems MAGA like to me… If lawmakers even try to voice reality they are expelled from the cult. Look at all the threats that went to MEMBERS OF CONGRESS who didn’t vote for Jim Jordan.
These people are so far down the rabbit hole that they can’t even see the light anymore as they twist themselves in knots trying to justify this gun madness. I have to think… why do they need the guns? It has to be about money, control, and power, but I also fear that the guns are part of a strategy to cling to power when they can’t win elections anymore.
When people tell me they need a gun to protect themselves, I reply… from other people with guns. If it is to protect from scary thugs like BLM marches, I tell them that is slave-owner mentality. They know that some people in our society have been victimized and marginalized, and they have a righteous grievance against the people who have benefited from that system, so they are afraid. It is not okay to arm up instead of confronting the inequities of this system.
I member of my family has fled an abusive marriage twice, and even stayed in a home for abused women for a few months. She is back with her husband, moved to another state away from her family, talking MAGA, and a few months ago he changed his Facebook profile to show himself holding his AR-15 painted in American flag colors. I almost burst into tears. How is it even possible for these things to happen?
I’m hoping some of Trump’s current, numerous legal problems will take some of the shine off the MAGA thing. But I fear the opposite may happen, that the trials, and maybe a conviction or two, will just make him a martyr and embolden the MAGAs.
As for the guns, I’ve even started seeing a few stories that say the prevalence of guns in our society is now causing some people formerly opposed to guns to buy them for protection/defense against all the guns! If we hadn’t already, it seems we may now have passed the point of no return.
The hate, fear, divisiveness, determination to destroy our democracy … it’s all depressing beyond words. I keep thinking about the lessons of history, that many or most of the world’s great empires were ultimately brought down by the rot within.
Maybe global warming will destroy us before the guns and hate have a chance.