I'm sure the mourning and weeping and candle lighting will go on for a while and I'm sure the finger pointing, panic mongering and political accusations of guilt will continue apace.
I have to look at how France has reacted after their own, much larger attacks in recent years. It's been very different I think. From over here, it looks like expressions of solidarity and refusal to be afraid typify the nation we like to joke about and accuse of cowardice. Paris has just lit up the Eiffel Tower as a token of solidarity with the usually supercilious and superior USA. Thank you and Vive La France.
We on the other hand have been spending our time both trying to stress that Orlando was a Jihadi attack and furiously denying it. Look not to the murderer's hand, say some. It's all about the guns. It's all because Obama won't say Islamic terrorism, say others. It's only because he used an "assault rifle" said one guy before I blocked him on Facebook. He would not admit that the Glock 17 pistol he carried actually was "military grade" but the rifle wasn't. Handguns are irrelevant apparently, if you're rabid about "assault rifles" but don't really know what that means. Many think they are legal machine guns, others thing the same bullet is more deadly because the rifle has a pistol grip, but neither panic nor politics make for truth or support logic. The first thing I saw this morning was an admonishment that we don't have a constitutional right to shoot 100 people at once. Thanks for reminding me that murder is illegal but I'd like to see a gun that can do that. We don't have a constitutional right to blow up buildings or set fires in nightclubs either. Meaningless non-sequitur designed to argue for the gun control policy that failed so miserably in this case. Be afraid! We're all in danger!
Where is the "let's stand together" rhetoric? No, it's more like "you can't go out any more" cowardice being hyped up by anti-gun panic brokers and when coupled with "they're going to take away our guns" panic on the other side, we're as funny as a Punch and Judy show to people that wish us harm and destruction. We're simply not the home of the brave we once were and apparently Europeans still are. From a gun-free America to driverless safety cars to the idea of a locked down walled country I feel surrounded by mewling, trembling, pants-pissing cowards. None of this bodes well for us remaining as the home of the free either.
When we find ourselves helpless over life and death, there is a tendency to double-down on manipulation over other parts of our lives, to control others, to argue a point with vehemence and intolerance to dissent of any kind. “I’m right, you’re wrong. PERIOD!" Dammit!"
ReplyDeleteIt’s about wresting back control when we feel most vulnerable. In process, we also demonstrate our vulnerabilities when we bully and coerce FaceBook friends with “unfollow” and “block” if they don’t fall into line. Delusional and illusory, we come to regret it later.
Admittedly, I know trifles about rifles. I am the dolt of Colts. And certainly no jock about Glocks. All besides the point and counterproductive, IMO.
Nevertheless, there are vital issues brought to the surface in the aftermath of the recent Orlando massacre: Hate speech. Homophobia. Islamophobia. Self-serving political agendas. False narratives for partisan gain. Far more dangerous, IMO, than clip capacities and technical details. Overheated rhetoric appeals to disturbed persons having little or no impulse control. It brings out the bigots and inspires copycat crimes.
We need honest, open discussions and a public consensus to solve this epidemic of hate and gun violence. And we can no longer afford to shut out any stakeholder. We need a national consensus and everyone onboard.
Yes, but honest and open can't mean excluding what makes certain weapons more dangerous than others if the objective is to reduce public danger. I offered a suggestion about removing the specific common factor of terrorist-friendly weapons and no one is interested in much beyond chanting slogans, so I have to conclude that the information Gerrymandering serves the interests of a group and not the interests of the public. It's facts that make an argument. A slogan can be and often is about nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, of course a feeling of helplessness is hard to handle. That's why I use the word brave. We all must die, we all don't make ourselves unable to act because of it. Faced with murderers of all kinds, I don't admire self-pity and hysteria. Are we being made to feel much more vulnerable than we are to the point where we have no compassion for others being slaughtered by the hundreds every day? It's not just us and I think others are handling it better.
Does it help when so many feel helpless to advise personal helplesness as a cure? Leave self-protection to the government isn't an idea that sells well and we have to understand the urge some people have to fight back and that the more passionate the call for gun control, the more guns are bought. I don't think it's wrong to lament the lack of cool heads and fact driven arguments. So when I try to suggest gun control that works and am shouted down by the demand for things that can't and won't and never have worked, I have to think about the joke about doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. That' where I think we are.
I support gun control, but I also support life and the process of living it and enjoying it in the face of our enemies. They delight in our fear and laugh at the candles and Teddy bears and flowers piling up on the street. Defiance, contempt for cowardly murderers not cringing and selling out to fear. That's what this post is about.
It takes more than facts and logic to deal with the cold dead hands crowd. During 2005-2015 71 people were
ReplyDeletekilled in US terrorist attacks: 301,797 others died by firearms in the same period. NRA 'collateral damage'. There are avid gunowners that insist the deaths
of gradeschoolers at Sandyhook Elementary was a staged hoax to take away their guns. There is in our society a sick group.
It takes more than facts and logic to deal with many people and many subjects. Guns are one of those subjects, but there's also no doubt that facts and figures mean nothing to either side. I've wasted precious time i don't have convincing people that the AR-15 is neither a weapon of war or an assault rifle. I've quoted the official US army requirements which insists it's not, but nobody listens. I've shown all kinds of data that says the killed by firearms numbers include more than half were suicides and many were accidents. I can show that most murders are done with handguns - and most suicides, I can show that assault rifles by definition uses less powerful ammunition than traditional military rifles. I can show all sorts of things that people will simply ignore because the cause is greater than the truth. The rhetoric, the assertions, the accusations and scapegoats never change. I think we believe what we believe and it's never a conclusion, but a presupposition.
ReplyDeleteYes, of course we're a gun loving country that is limited by it's founding laws from restricting guns, but yes, there is a way to change that that we rarely get around to talking about because it takes time our from telling each other how angry we are.
I really tire of yelling about guns as the world goes to hell.