I’ve been holding off posting about this since the recent shootings. Then came the stand-off with police in Philadelphia last night. I know these are all sensitive issues, even among those of us who fully support 2A (Second Amendment).
The nagging question that keeps coming to mind is why are military areas with people fully armed to the teeth so safe? If the issue were really guns or the amount of ammo in a clip then why is a war zone so safe compared to parts of our inner cities? Sure, there have been isolated instances of murder inside a base in a war zone but the numbers are very small compared to the number of guns and ammo.
We can site some potential reasons. For example, I can think of things like training, culture and the fact that you would have to be suicidal to start shooting at people who can shoot back in your own base. Typically, we do not turn on our own. That might be part of the culture thing. It leads me to think that those who commit mass murder in the USA do not view “others”, the ones they are shooting at, as their own.
We all know there is a level of mental instability running through most cases of mass murder but that is not all there is. There is definitely a sense that many mass killers see their victims as the “others”, whatever that means to them. In their demented minds, the “others” do not deserve to live in peace or live at all. It does not seem to matter if we are talking Islamic Terrorists or Domestic Terrorists of the KKK type or the Antifa type. It is always the “others” do not deserve to live.
People are struggling to find answers as to why mass shootings are on the rise. They want to blame violent video games, social media, etc. I’m not sure they really want to know the truth because they keep avoiding it. I can think of a few things that are rarely brought up. Maybe some folks are actually too young to figure this out. It is up to the older folks to point out what has changed. After all, we have lived through the change.
I am only 61 but here are some changes I’ve noticed:
I was not brought up in a church-going family. However, I was taught that there was a God and one day I would answer to Him. Generally speaking, my friends were all taught the same things whether they went to church or not. Now, this is seldom the case for those who do not attend church. Add to that church attendance and a belief in a God who judges has greatly diminished. Neither is general prayer in or at school events allowed these days. It was one of the worst Supreme Court decisions next to Roe v. Wade and Dred Scott v. Sandford.
“Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” was understood to be speaking about hypocrisy, not everything. There is a “right judgment”.
There was always a sense of right and wrong. It was taught by our parents, our neighbors, and our schools. If you got in trouble at school you could be punished there and by your parents. If a neighbor saw you do something wrong and reported it to your parents, your parents believed the neighbor. Oh, and if your parents decided to physically discipline an older child the police backed up your parents as long as no bones were broken.
Abortion was not considered a means of birth control. I grew up believing it was a horrible act and remember, my family did not go to church. Sure, there were reasons in extreme cases like incest, rape and for the mother’s safety. Most of the people committing mass murder today grew up believing you can end life as a matter of convenience. Do we think for one minute this doesn’t affect their view of the value of life? Let’s get real here! No matter what side you are on you have to see the clear truth of that.
We have closed many of our mental institutions and give more rights to those who might be borderline psychotics. Thank you, ACLU! (NOT). Then there are the new (new to my generation) HIPAA Privacy Rules enacted in 1996. This alone has likely caused much more harm than good. I have one person in my life that would still be alive today if it were not for the HIPAA law. This law makes a person’s mental health privacy more important than their life or the lives of others.
As long as we continue to live with our heads in the sand we will never get a grip on gun violence. We have demonstrated it is not a matter of the number of guns or ammo. It is something wrong with our culture and our laws. It is what we have accepted. We have done this to ourselves. No need to look any further.
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Amen!
Why are military safe with weapons? Training!!!!!!
How much training is required to buy an assault weapon? How safe is that????
Training for sure. That is a big part of it. Mass shooters don’t care much about that. I suppose some train themselves or practice. The big thing is culture and viewing “others” as not worthy of life. That is partly a moral issue, not just mental illness although that is a part. No fear of God, fear of judgment, fear of repercussions or discipline and early age mental illness treatment is a larger part. Those things need to be instilled and evaluated at an early age. We are just not doing it. We have done this to ourselves. Automatic and… Read more »
Don’t blame the ACLU for mental health institutes closing. That was Gov. Reagan balancing California’s budget by closing almost all of the government run facilities and gutting the funding for private care. Once the other states saw it, they copied the money saving idea.
All I have to say comes directly from the ACLU’s own website. https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-history-mental-institutions