Yes, Let’s Talk!
Yes, let’s talk about gun violence.
Let’s talk about those who use guns to commit great acts of horrific violence. It is those animals we need to discuss. What triggers them to desire to commit such heinous acts? Is it evil? Is it mental health? Is it terrorism? Is it something else?
Why does a person walk into a school, or a theater, a shopping center, or a concert intent on shooting as many innocent victims as possible? Is it the same ideology, philosophy or mental illness that also compels someone to drive onto a sidewalk and run over as many people as possible? Is it the same urge that pushes someone to strap on a bomb and detonate it in a central commercial marketplace?
Let’s figure this out together.
Then, let’s talk about their access to firearms and other methods used to hurt others. If we know someone has a propensity for and desire to hurt others, what can and should we do in the name of public and individual safety?
There is a place for discsussion of guns as a means of killing innocent victims, but this discussion needs to be much, much larger. A gun is a tool, used by an evil, deranged or sick individual, to carry out urges and temptations that presumably already exist. A gun is but one tool at the disposal of someone wanting to hurt or kill.
Our talk needs to relate to more than guns. The mass shootings we have witnessed in the past two decades are symptoms of greater societal troubles. Let’s talk about those greater societal troubles.
Anyone who wants to talk only about guns does not really want to solve this terrible problem.
