THE PRICE WE PAY
Another shooting spree in America and so another year of violence and death begins. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/02/21/reports-gunman-kills-least-6-michigan/80694468/
There are those who want to believe that our country is not getting more violent, we are just becoming more aware due to the internet. This is a lie and here are the statistics:
( I eliminated any domestic motivated killings and I have not counted the wounded which is some cases was a mind numbing number)
During the whole of the 1970s there were 3 mass killings leaving 12 dead. This does not include the Kent State massacre or any other government sanctioned shootings of that era. US population in 1970 was 203 million.
During the 1980s there were 8 mass shootings, including 5 committed by postal workers (coining the term "going postal") 58 dead. Population in 1980 was 226 million
During the 1990s there were 19 mass shootings leaving 130 dead. ( this included the Columbine shooting that left 28 dead, mostly high school students).
Population in 1990 was 248 million.
During the 2000s there were 21 mass shootings including the worst one in US history (VA Tech - Hokies forever RIP - 58 people killed, mostly college students) A total of 150 dead.
Population in 2000 was 281 million.
Too many people are dying, they are someone's children, someone's Mom or Dad, brother or sister. For every number in the dead column is a name and a face and a life cut short.
We have to do better. We have to do better in vetting those who are buying guns and ammo. We have to do better at catching up the mentally ill before they reach a critical state. We have to do better in this country to be compassionate and inclusive of all our citizens. We need to stop shutting people out, of our lives, of society, of community. This is a complex trend that is escalating and will not be solved by any one intervention. We can't just add more gun laws without addressing mental health and hate and prejudice. Many of these shootings were motivated by hatred of religious sects, gender, orientation, race, exclusion. Hate that is fostered in unstable minds by flaming rhetoric and twisted doctrine and escalates in isolation. Interestingly, in the 1970s there began a process of deinstitutionalizing mental patients by closing pysch hospitals and defunding many mental health programs. Today it is difficult to get mental health services for those who are ill and perhaps homeless and unemployed. We tend to ignore unstable behavior we see in our communities - someone else's problem, not ours. We are quiet on the verbal and physical attacks on those in our society who are being targeted, be it for their religion, sexual orientation, etc. And each year we pay the price. If not your friend or relative this year maybe some time in the next 5 years you will be affected by a mass shooting, losing someone you know and love.
We really have to do better
Thank you, Rocky. Unlike other shooting sprees, this crime is even more incomprehensible. According to news accounts, the shooter was quiet, a so-called family man with no criminal record or history of mental illness. Unprovoked. All random acts. No apparent motive. Why? Why? Why? Who or what to blame?
ReplyDeleteAs always, the NRA will victimize the victims by blaming them for their own deaths … for failing to pack heat and protect themselves. The NRA would have the entire population carry guns as ubiquitously as we carry cell phones. They wield fear and paranoia as a marketing tool on behalf of their client, the gun lobby.
In fact, everyone is to blame … the NRA, the gun lobby, opportunistic politicians who take their money, and most of all: A violent and savage culture.
I blame the Cincinnati Revolution for hijacking the NRA and turning it into an insurrection lobby.
I blame deceased Justice Scalia, the originalist juror whose word-wrangling and language-mangling turned the word “militia” into a human right and the phrase “well regulated” into an open call to arms.
I blame anarchists and hotheads who equate “the right to bear arms” with a license to engage in hostage taking and armed insurrection against our own government, for using arms to bully and intimidate anyone who stands in opposition.
I blame our citizenry for failing to understand the balance between “freedom” and “responsibility;” that you cannot have unbridled freedom without self-restraint. Our culture is sick, and the patient is terminal.
I think the real core is our very, very sick society where violent rhetoric is the accepted language and anarchy is encouraged. And hey, doesn't everyone want to be John Wayne?
DeleteI think you're right. The culture of gratuitous rebellion, hostility to law in general, to government -- to civilization is rampant. I hear judges telling us that any law is an infringement to freedom and I worry. Between the call for one more Crusade for the glory of God and a call to arms against any democratically elected government I'm sure this is not going to end well. Perhaps these much publicized shootings are a prediction of a global holocaust of self-immolation. It's so scary that people who have never had any interest in firearms are mow buying them.
DeleteWe live in VERY divided times. Unfortunately it is becoming more apparent with the passage of time it is UNLIKELY this nation will ever find the magic formula to become a truly unified nation.
ReplyDeleteForces dividing us are plentiful. NRA is top shelf in that group.
Magic solutions are in short supply but yes, the demand is up. Real, workable solutions require an objectivity not present in American dialog about anything. Even calling it dialog is a shady practice , it's just people with fixed ideas shouting and calling names.
DeleteReal solutions, when they're even possible, are rarely simple or satisfying and they are rarely implemented by the outraged.
We have not ever been a unified nation and notice the frenzy about putting God in and on everything and the absolute silence about the e pluribus thing? Hell, too much e pluribuys unum and the next thing you know we'll have immigrants!
Yeah, we live in a society where a rich man who screws the masses is a candidate for president and Glen Beck still reigns supreme. Not sure we can ever agree on and implement reasonable solutions because there will always be some looney screaming how the government gonna take away your guns and your religion.
DeleteHumans are destroyers and creators at the same time. We are killing each other by the different ways. It's not just about shooting, it's our mental problem. We should solve this problem, weapons excepting doesn't help us.
ReplyDeleteYes, we need to approach the issue on multiple fronts. due to the loons that are so afraid someone is going to take their guns they refuse to consider any solution in response to a crime that involves a gun.
DeleteThe passions of the day. Back in the 80's, a Chicago cab driver with my last name saw "taxi Driver" too many times, bought himself a revolver illegally and carried it illegally in his cab and began to drive fares to out of the way areas and kill them.
ReplyDeletethe popular response, other than my co-workers calling me "killer" for a few months was to blame Hollywood. Sort of like Marco Rubio does today. Chicago at the time had a handgun ban, gun owner registration and a ban on concealed weapons and carrying a loaded gun in a car. That was in the day when crime really was on the increase and we were yelling for more police patrols and for "not tying their hands" and "coddling criminals." The passions of that day have fed the abuses of our day.
Frankly I'm suspicious of a little data Gerrymandering and some fesar mongering. I don't think we can avoid thinking that affording every loser more publicity that Donald Trump can afford and not expect anyone to emulate rampage shooters and suicide shooters.
Lots of interesting information here:
ReplyDeleteHow Scared Should I Be of Getting Shot?
No matter what people want to believe, this country is getting more violent and mass shootings is on the rise. If this trend continues most of us will either know someone affected by a mass shooting or be affected by it ourselves. Scary stuff.
Delete"If this trend continues" is the preamble to most things that turn out not to be true. In the 80's it was used to predict a nearly apocalyptic future - films like "secape from New York" were popular, but beginning around then the trend was for much less crime and much less violent crime. Even the expansion of the Universe has turned out not to be constant - just like everything else except the speed of light. Remember when postal shootings became a cliche?
DeleteOne of the reasons we can't ever predict the future is that we love simplistic explanations far too much and we don't like to examine all the fact sor all the factors and we like the sort of solutions that fit with simplistic explanations.
I think we neglect the role our culture plays in these things, these events where a nobody can become the center of attention of the entire nation for weeks even if it costs him his life. There are people who want their death to be noticed by everyone and we all cooperate in passionate fashion. There is little evidence that murder itself is on the rise and much evidence that the kinds of murders that make up the majority have nothing to do with these "blaze o Glory" killings.
It's also extremely true that we love to rave about such things so much that we're now framing all sorts of things so as to resemble each other because it sells air time and serves the political agendas of people with a lot of incluence who want even more.
But "what people want to believe" is the problem. It keeps us from assessing problems and solutions objectively and believe it or not, there are those who will ignore all sorts of evidence if it conflicts with their emotional attitudes. The best way to produce incoherent rage in people who fault the NRA for stiffling research on anything to do with gun safety is to start a conversation about past efforts and their results. Try it some time. The entire subject has been hijacked by hysterics and zealots and if I had a brain in my head I would stay out of these "if this continues" arguments.
DeleteSo many mistakes have been made in the last forty years. So many more guns have been manufactured and sold right here in the U.S. So many people have lived and died with mental illness. Although I would posit that it is not the mentally ill homeless and marginalized that are responsible for the sickening gun culture that has evolved in our fair nation.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we will ever be able to predict who is going to lose their mind and just start shooting at innocent people. It is my opinion that a large segment of our society has lost their collective minds and is in a large part responsible for the astonishing numbers that we have seen increasing every year. Increasing exponentially during the Obama presidency. Believe me. I have talked to gun owners on-line. They attack every new gun law with the ridiculous slippery slope argument.
First thing. Limit the amount of guns that are allowed to be manufactured. Many guns are channelled into illegal markets. They are either smuggled out of the country or end up in the hands of criminals through straw purchases or just the ridiculous availability of guns in this country. There need to be several caps on production and purchasing of guns. We will never truly be free from the three hundred million guns that already exist in this country. But we can limit new production and new purchases. We do not have to kowtow to ridiculous arguments from criminal organizations such as the NRA and ALEC. This is still a democratic republic. The people can and will regain the reigns of power.
Of course, we must do all that we can to identify and help people with mental illnesses. But we must more importantly remove the easy access to guns. This is not a restriction on law-abiding citizens to own and use guns. Make it a little bit harder to get guns. Tax ammunition. Make people register their guns with their local law enforcement officials. Stiffen penalties for violations. Eliminate private sales. We do not have to continue unabated as we have for the last forty years. Obama could not have been elected had he not promised not to touch current gun law. Eight years later, the field has changed.
Most of the meaningful legislation and selective law enforcement has been happening at local levels of government and police departments. Anybody driving around with a gun in their car in my home town of San Diego had best keep their car in good running operation and not run any stop signs. The SDPD does not want to talk to anyone carrying a weapon in their car, CCW permit or not. Until recently, ALEC has had the option of trying to take local law up to the Scalia SCOTUS. His death is a huge victory for common sense gun legislation.
Another important new wave of freedom is going to be the Hillary Clinton presidency. Hopefully those voters that are attracted to her will substantively affect the outcomes of an enormous number of congressional elections. We do not have to lose on this one. We can bring out the numbers to once and for all slam the haters against the ropes of the boxing ring. We will never have to listen to a blowhard like Trump again. Power to the people.
Next thing we can do is quit manufacturing weapons for the world markets. This is a libertarian thing, since most of it is funded by our taxes. Witness the "foreign aid" to Israel. All guns, planes and munitions. There is common ground for thinking Americans.
It wasn't long ago that the numbers I was reading showed fewer and fewer households had guns in them. I have a feeling recent events and recent rhetoric has changed that significantly. Both sides of this issue are creating demand for firearms and not the sort one uses for duck hunting or skeet shooting. I think the growth is in small and easy to conceal and in big and scary looking as possible. It's not the alligator hunters, Alaskan homesteaders or the wealthy sportsmen driving gun sales today
ReplyDeleteIt's going to take much much more than passing more "common sense" laws to solve what really is a national mental health problem: rampant paranoia. I don't know what it might take to convince Americans that, Obama is not "determined to confiscate the guns of law abiding citizens" as Wayne LaPierre said the other day. The fact that neither he nor Clinton confiscated one damned thing hasn't changed a thing. It doesn't help either that I can't go two minutes without hearing all the nonsense about how dangerous American life is getting. The gun shops smile all the way to the bank.
I agree about us being gunmaker to the world. Efforts to regulate arms sales are being portrayed on a daily basis as "obama's efforts to take away your cherished shotgun." And of course, millions are trained to believe such things without question just as millions are trained to believe they're selling machine guns at Wal-Mart.
It's like a game of dodge ball where two groups are firing at us and we sit in the middle and can't get a break.
I wouldn't bet on anything changing with a change of administrations. I suspect that the rhetoric from the right is talking up the paranoia about how she's going to disarm us to cost her votes. For millions, guns are THE issue and many have been trained to suspect her of nearly anything, just as they did here husband.
I remain suspicious however, about "common sense" arguments and the neglect of any scientific attempt to asses risk and to predict the effects of any move. In all matters we tend to put a great deal of faith in things that sound good but have been tried repeatedly with bad results. It sure sounded like that national speed limit would save lives, but it didn't. Common sense is at heart another word for prejudice. That's not to say the idea of requireing sales to go through licensed dealers might not help, but other indirect things like requiring better background checks on Uber drivers might not do some good too. There's huge resistance from organized interests to consider anything that's not a "gun law"
Might I suggest that limiting demand might be more successful than trying to limit supply? Fear drives this whole vicious circle and the fear is being manufactured and distributed recklessly.