The Gun Debate

Before I offer up my opinion on the recent Newtown tragedy, I'd first like to offer my sincere and heartfelt condolences for the victims and their families.  It is impossible to imagine the kind of pain that such an event has caused.

A week after Newtown the NRA have broken their silence to tell us that the solution to the problem of gun violence in this country is to placed armed security guards in every school.  And the problem is access to video games and movies (as opposed to assault rifles with 100 round magazines).

It is really sad that this organization is so drunk on its own political power that they cannot say or do the responsible thing at a time like this.

We've heard all the lines before, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."  And all the other dross that they and the politicians they bought and paid for sing from the same hymn sheet.

Of course we all know that their lies are ridiculous right?  These evil video games and movies that we make here in America are shipped all over the world.  Other countries like Canada have plenty of guns, yet they don't have the same rate of gun homicide.  And countries like Australia and Great Britain laid down their arms and can count their gun homicide rate in the double digits while we'd feel like a miracle had happened if our rate fell into the four digit range.

But I don't believe that the gun violence problem in America is just about the guns; and I guess in that respect I agree with the NRA and Republicans who love to try and shift the focus away from talking about gun control.  I think the problem is far deeper than that.

In my experience living in the US, we have chosen to create a very divided society.  You have the haves, and the have nots.  And thanks to Bush wealth redistribution, the rich have gotten richer, and everyone else has remained stagnant or gotten poorer.  Sadly, we don't even seem to care.

Despite all the rhetoric about what a good Christian nation we have, and God has a special place in His heart for us, we are ironically very much ignoring the teachings of Christ.  Jesus it has to be said, was somewhat of a liberal hippie.  Take from the rich, give to the poor, love thy neighbor, turn the other cheek, don't persecute others, be tolerant of others, and so on and so forth.  Yet we don't do any of these things.

We have created a war-loving nation, we have troops stationed in over 150 nations, and while children in our country go hungry or lack the medicine they need if they are sick, we still maintain the biggest military budget anywhere on the planet.

When a person falls on hard times we begrudgingly given them food stamps (instead of money) and they are forced to shop in certain stores for certain food, and advertise the fact that they are poor in front of their fellow shoppers.  When you demean people in this manner it will erode their self esteem, thus making it even less likely they can nail a job interview.

If a poor person gets sick we take all the money off them we can and then ruin their credit, all while withholding from them the special health care that is reserved only for the well heeled.

My point is when you fail to educate the population well, when you dump on the poor, mentally ill, and vulnerable, you create resentment and the beginnings of dangerous people.

Once you give these disenfranchised people easy access to military grade assault weapons with 100 round magazines you are looking for trouble.

So as the NRA have told you, banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines won't ever stop every atrocity.  And maybe an armed guard at the school would give an extra layer of protection.  But fundamentally we have to become a more caring society, especially if we are going to use Jesus as the example for mankind.

If you walk up to a random person in Canada or England and ask them if they think that health care is a human right; they will probably reply "Of course."  They won't ask about whether the human being in the example is a good or bad person, rich or poor, or has a fancy insurance premium.  In other industrialized countries with universal healthcare a person gets sick and they are taken care of (and this would usually include mental health issues which are often associated with these massacres).

The debate about the effectiveness of various countries health care systems is a topic for another day.  Although it has to be said that America does spend about double what almost every other country per person on healthcare and yet leaves tens of millions out in the cold.

And to me this is what the problem is all about.  We have to get less selfish.  We have to accept that we need to pay taxes.  We have to insist that our politicians stop squandering the money on wars, guns, bombs, drones, and weapons of mass destruction.  We have to reach out to the poor, the mentally disadvantaged, the weak, the unemployed, the disabled, and extend a hand of kindness.

Until we start to show compassion for everyone, even the lazy meth addicts of this world, we cannot move forward.  The more we disenfranchise people and give them easy access to military grade weapons, the more we are going to see terrible acts of violence.