Killing

I will vigorously advocate for unrestricted gun availability when all weapons sold and owned are capable of killing other people only in self-defense. Isn't that the reason we're all buying them?

Until then, however, count me among those who call for a genuine, comprehensive conversation leading to meaningful societal reform. I'm talking big picture here, because continuing down this same path while expecting the body count to slow down is the very definition of insanity. When violence is the state answer to both national and international problems and brute force is glorified throughout culture, how could we not expect it to permeate every aspect of our lives?

Bumper-sticker conversations (AKA drive-by shoutings), sound bite proclamations, and second amendment conclusions sketched from single-perspective logic are not the answer; they are a significant part of the problem. Violence doesn't end with shooting; life does. Neither does it begin with shooting. It begins with injustice and oppression. Power – abused, wielded, and tilted against others – is the first violent volley. As eyes are opened to socioeconomic rampage’s claim on victims farther up the food chain, we are being gradually anesthetized to our craving for brutality’s solution.

Violence was once a last resort for all but the pathological. Now that it has become commonplace in society, it behooves us to dig below the surface in search of the systemic imbalances driving us to such a pathology. Without this holistic honesty and excavation we can do little more than whitewash rotten porch rafters.

If we continue down the same road, convincing ourselves that more weapons are the answer to less violence, is it beyond conceivability for the USA to become a new wasteland, where the rest of the world's adrenaline junkies up-armor, paying big money to travel on urban safaris,  attempting to make it through alive? Perhaps that is beyond your imagination, but continuing down this path, sans significant conversation, is not a journey I’m willing to continue.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins