I have shot handguns, rifles, and bows. Usually - 99.5 percent of the time - I was aiming at a paper target. I have shot and killed rattlesnakes in the horse pastures and the barn in Florida, many years ago. I do not own a gun. As I take medicine daily to combat suicidal depression, I could not, legally, purchase a gun in most places inside the United States - except at some gun shows.
I really am worried at the violence that is spreading across our country like a dark wave. Back when our Constitution was written, revolvers were not yet around, and flintlock rifles and single-shot pistols were used. After each firing, the weapon had to be re-loaded in several steps. One could not squeeze the trigger and have a continuous firing of bullets.
Besides the shootings at public schools, there have been shootings in restaurants, at music festivals and shows, random neighborhood shootings taking innocent lives and rivals, at night clubs, and on college campuses. There are bombings of restaurants, homes, and races. People are run over with vehicles that weigh a thousand (and more) times than they weigh. People around the world are stoned, beaten, battered and shoved. Women are raped.
I just read an article about studies done in some of the much older cities in Europe. Skeletons were exhumed from ancient graves and studies were made of how the people had died. Unsurprisingly, people buried in large church yards and under fine grave stones, usually died of age or illness. But the majority of people who were buried in grave areas designated for the poor showed that almost half of them had died from, or had lived through, some type of trauma. More than 20% had died from massive head trauma. The people who did the study were able to access church and law records from the eras they researched - and most of the dead with head trauma were found the morning after being paid, or on a night when there was a well-established drinking pattern.
I
do realize that we humans have a nasty, violent streak (usually) deep within our psyche. I grew up reading novels about past civilizations, about the American West, and I started reading history when I was ten years old. I know about conquests, massacres, and enslavement. I know that some people have depths of evil that I do not wish to explore, or even try to understand. Their acts are hateful and heinous to me.
I have wondered, in the past, and in this blog, if the violence we see today is aided and abetted, or caused by, the proliferation of violent movies and video games and television programs that are so easily accessible. Does viewing close-ups of bullets striking a body and blood poring out influence a deadening of the senses? There are a
lot of movies and programs that I simply cannot, and do not, watch because of the levels of violence and destruction. - Yes, I used to watch the old Western shows on television with great avidity; but, then, one saw the shooting victim grasp his chest or middle and collapse like a rag doll. One did not see the bullet plunge into a body and all the gore and destruction that followed. Plus, old Westerns were, in actuality, morality plays...
In any event, since the shooting last week at Santa Fe High School in Texas, the National Rifle Association and it's spokesmen, including Oliver North and Ted Nugent, have given
nine reasons for the recent shootings in public schools. They are:
1. America lives in a "culture of violence."
2. Children diagnosed with ADHD are given Ritalin to treat that problem.
3. Godlessness. Since God was taken out of school teaching, the children have become open to evil.
4. There are too many doors in school buildings.
5. Unhealthy diets. "... if you really studied the slovenliness and the zombie-like conduct of these murderers, you go back to their diet... and it's all garbage." So says Ted Nugent.
6. Children in school are being over-medicated.
7. It's all "due to America's progressive culture and media."
8. It's because parents are not teaching their children "how to cope with the harsh realities of life." Boys are being told that masculinity is toxic, and girls are being to that to be real women they should act like a man. The youngsters are confused by this mixed-up message from adults.
9. It's because of "main stream media outlets, who wrote the mass shooters' playbook." The media is "recruiting shooters to a reality show."
Not
once did any of the spokesmen say that guns should be kept in a locked safe and out of the hands of children and young people. Not
once was mention made of the adult gun owners. It is
all someone else's fault.
Well... Screw you, National Rifle Association spokesmen.
