Through the day yesterday I saw a large number
of posts reacting to the Everytown count of school shootings as false and fake
news suggesting that the gun problem is not as big as that, and by implication
more gun restrictions are unnecessary or perhaps even counter-indicated. I
would repeat that that count is not false, all acknowledge that the events did
occur. What is in dispute is whether they all reached the level of being
counted as school shootings.
I also saw a number of posts suggesting that
everything from taking prayer and paddling out of schools was to blame. We need
to keep in mind that this is not a school problem, it is pervasive in our
society. We have had mass shootings at concerts, in movie theaters, churches,
offices, shopping malls, and almost anywhere large numbers of people gather.
I also received a number of posts reminding us
(me?) that those who want to kill will find other ways to do this even if they
don’t have access to guns. Certainly true enough. We have had several stabbings
recently, but I would doubt anyone could stab 17 people to death in six
minutes. The lethality of modern guns makes them particularly problematic.
Perhaps the only things more lethal than guns are explosives, as was quite
evident in Oklahoma City and Boston. Having said that, explosives are not as
easy to deploy as guns. Nevertheless, my contention would be that the methods
used are symptoms of a deeply underlying problem of violence and anger that is
pervading our whole society, not just those who carry out lethal acts.
I am afraid that arguing that “it is not as bad
as the news makes it out to be” dismisses and minimizes the pain for victims
and their families and friends. I am hearing from personal friends with no
agenda in the gun debate saying that their children are having trouble sleeping
and are afraid to leave the house. I would not diminish the importance of all
kinds of mass killings (by guns or any other method), but I would point out
that though they get high public profile, as they should, far more people are
killed (and even more injured) by guns (and yes, other methods too) in quiet
obscurity than in these mass killings. Accidents, suicides, and domestic
disputes bring daily fatalities in large numbers and go unnoticed unless it is
your spouse, your child, your parent, your sibling, your friend, your neighbor
who dies. The unique problem with guns in these cases is that their lethality
is dramatically more effective than other methods.
Combined with the “those who want to kill will
find a way” is almost writing off such events as inevitable if the perpetrators
are considered mentally ill. Most folk who suffer and struggle with their
mental health are not dangerous. When this is raised with a “we can’t do
anything about it” attitude, we feed the social acceptance of such deadly
events as to expected and almost normal. It stigmatizes not only those will
mental illnesses, but also those who try to help them. Not that treatment
insures no violent outbursts, nor that all who need it would get treatment, but
the mental illness explanation must be seen as doing better with mental health
services, not a path to accepting this violence as inevitable.
Some have, correctly I believe, observed that
the problem may not be so much mental illness as anger. We are living in a very
angry time. Public debates on all sorts of issues before us all too often
degenerate into expressions of anger (sometimes with subtlety), and civility of
decorum when discussing disagreements is lost. Brawls in the halls of
government are rare, but the words and tactics used express and feed the social
propensity toward anger, which is all too evident on social media.
The arguments against even simple, incremental
steps because they would not have prevented this or that tragedy paralyzes us
from doing anything. The problems of violence and anger do not spring from a
single source nor can they be addressed with single, simple solutions. But the
refusal to try to make progress with small measures perpetuates the problem.
I have found myself deeply troubled by this
issue for some time. I don’t consider myself to be a gun control crusader, but
neither am I an advocate for totally unfettered access to firearms. I have
written what I consider to be a guide for personal, spiritual self-examen on
the place of guns in the heart. http://nstolpepilgrim.blogspot.com/2016/01/guns-in-your-heart.html
I also recognize that social media rarely, if ever, changes someone’s mind. With
my writing, I have tried to prompt thought rather than articulate positions per
se, but I’m sure plenty of my readers (if they persist in reading my lengthy
essays) think of me as some sort of partisan. So be it. After responding to
some of the things that came my way and disturbed my peace yesterday, I felt
compelled to write one last essay to put out there as a way of letting go of
this. The priority of my life right now is making every day for my wife, Candy,
the best it can be as we journey together with her Alzheimer’s. I need to give
her full attention without being either mentally or emotionally distracted by
some of these things that I do consider to be important. My spiritual
disciplines at this moment must be to relinquish the things that steal my joy.
My hope is that by getting these thought out, I can let go of them and refocus
on walking hand in hand with Candy and Jesus.
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