As usual in these horrific public executions the media, and opportunists in the
political universe are quick to claim the killers were motivated by hateful and
violent speech and propaganda levelled against the victims by political opponents, right wing zealots, tea party types and similar. Thus moved to exact revenge, or prevent all sorts of plots to subvert our government,
liberties and culture, the killers deliver divine punishment on the evil doers. No doubt there is enough hate speech and
violent rhetoric to stimulate the eagerly awaiting, gun clutching, self anointed
avengers among us, as happens in attacks on abortion providers. But not all such massacres are so motivated.
Yes, ours is a horribly violence infiltrated culture. Even our national sports such
as pro football are violent on a grand scale, produced with all the showmanship
of major Hollywood musical extravaganzas. Hockey games are only exciting if some player has his skull fractured in a personal confrontation with an opponent. Try to
find a movie representing real, normal, adjusted people. Instead we have a world of Super heroes and super monsters wreaking unimaginable horror and destruction, or pathological killers dismembering their victims on screen.
Too many massacres are initiated by demented people with no understanding of the
consequence of their acts, and often no memory of having committed them. Here, dear Brutus, the fault is with ourselves that we make it possible for them to posses
weapons of extreme lethality. Thus the insane have taken over the asylum and the sane must cower in fear that their paths may cross. If you can call murder an act
of sanity, some murder in anger, or for material gain, and may be aware of their
actions and risks. To the insane, there is no moral dimension to the event.
The NRA says an armed society is a safer society. How would this "shoot out at the OK Corral" policy help the six already dead?
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I cannot agree with your assault on the NRA (even though I will never agree with their agenda).
The problem is that we, Americans, have come to believe that the loudest mouth must, certainly be the most authoritative. We have allowed ourselves to become sheep driven by popular opinion rather than educated, reasonable people willing to do the hard work of sorting things out and finding suitable solutions.
The NRA has always been intent on their mission of granting everyone the right to carry fire arms whether or not obviously needed but, until recently, all the rest of us have asked ourselves "why?".
We enjoy one the the most superior protection structures in the world. None of us is required to carry any weapon to survive in our society but the over-whelming pressure we feel from the gun lobbies causes us to doubt our safety.
The NRA and societal safety are completely separate topics that have almost no correlation.
Let's be honest; the NRA did not gun down Christine Green in Arizona. That atroscity was the work of a mentally inept person affiliated with nobody else. If Al Quaida might be identified as the agent we might feel better but this attacker was one of America's children; coddled, misinformed and ignored while obviously unstable. The only blame we can feel justified in offering is against ourselves.
Arizona has built a reputation as open to personal freedoms but has also demonstrated a complete disregard for personal safety and civility. Now a nine-year-old has had to pay the price of that choice.
Where should the blame be placed?
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