Every time people are mowed down by a young male who thinks he’s living in a movie or a video game, we hear the same words: unthinkable, tragedy, guns don’t kill people, I have the right to bear arms, investigation, debate, gun-control, loner, how? why? Why? Because guns are easy to buy. Unthinkable? No, predictable. These shootings are a needless and predictable tragedy. If guns were not so readily available, these killings would not happen. If movies and video games didn’t depict and glamorize gratuitous gun violence, these lonely, deluded young men wouldn’t need to shoot people to get attention.
When not mentally deranged, the gunman's motive is usually notoriety or revenge and underlying that, loneliness. News media toss around the word “loner” as though it were a disease. But what does it mean, really? Isolated, alienated, lacking human contact. Loneliness kills in more ways than one.
According to theBrady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 60 mass shootings occurred in the United States since the January 8, 2011 massacre in Tucson, Arizona when Gabby Giffords and thirteen other people were wounded and six people were killed by an insane gunman. (If he was insane, why did he have a gun?)
There were more than four hundred and thirty mass shootings in the US in the last seven years. . . 430!
How long are we going to tolerate recurring mass murders? Do we want to be one of the victims? Do we think life is so cheap that we'll continue to allow it to be taken by anyone who wants to be on the news? People don’t need guns. We need a “well-armed” militia (army, police force) not a well-armed populace. Multiple annual mass murders are what happens when you have a well-armed populace. No other country allows its population to be massacred like this. Cops, metal-detectors and pat-downs at the multiplex are not the answer. Strictly enforced gun laws so people can’t buy guns so easily in the first place will be more useful. The number of dead in gun massacres trumps any arguments against strict gun laws.
If you think the US should have the same freedom from gun massacres as other countries, sign the petition here, speak out against guns, against gratuitous violence in films and video games, refuse to vote for politicians who don’t have the guts to stand up against the gun lobby and the NRA. And be kind to the next shy, aloof person you meet. You may help avert a mass murder.
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