Prayers do not deter gun violence
As many of my fans know, gun violence pisses me off. Not because of the act of violence itself, but because of the sheer amount of stupidity surrounding it.
We have a real problem in this country when it comes to people getting shot for no logical reason. We’ve gone from having verbal disagreements to twitter fights, and now we’re up to whipping out a pistol and settling the dispute by firing off a hail of bullets. And instead of doing the sane thing, which would be enacting some common sense gun laws, what do we do? We’re asked to bow our heads in prayer for the victims- AFTER THE FACT.
For those of you who haven’t heard by now, there was another theater shooting this past Thursday in Lafayette, Louisiana. John Russel Houser, 58, walked into a screening of the film, TRAINWRECK and killed three people and injured nine others. Seriously, it’s one thing if you didn’t like the movie or Amy Schumer, but either ask for your money back or give it a lousy review on Rotten Tomatoes for Christ’s sake! It’s not worth killing anybody over!
Okay, maybe making a joke about this is in bad taste, but it kind of underlines the point I’m trying to make. Now, it’s usually at this point that I go on a rage-filled, profanity-laced rant on how much I hate the republicans, teabaggers, and the NRA for blocking any and all attempts to stem the tide of gun stupidity, but there’s no real point to doing that, mostly because no one bothers to listen. All anyone in this country ever wants to do is wait for the latest shooting tragedy to cycle out of the news and pretend it never happened so they can focus on something more important, like whatever new bullshit Donald Trump is spewing for his non-existent run for the presidency.
Let’s be honest for a moment here, shall we? When one of these random shootings happen, reporters and politicians line up to put on their ‘sad’ faces and call it a ‘tragedy’, but is it really a tragedy anymore? Sandy Hook- THAT was a tragedy. After twenty children died because some whacko with an AR-15 decided to take his frustrations out on the world, you’d think that would have been the line drawn in the sand for somebody to stand up and say, “ENOUGH.” But it wasn’t. The gun issue was settled on that day in December without any real debate. The country just let out a collective sigh and thought, “Welcome to the new normal! Just duck!”
But here’s the thing- I’m done referring to these incidents as a tragedy. They’re only a tragedy because nobody wants to do anything about it. Gun violence in America is NOT a tragedy- it’s an EPIDEMIC. You want to know what the real tragedy is? THE FACT THAT NOBODY WANTS TO DO A DAMNED THING ABOUT IT!
Hold up- let me backtrack a second here. I was wrong. People do want to do something about it. THEY WANT TO BUY MORE GUNS. Yeah…. That’ll solve the problem! It’s like an alcoholic solving his problem by becoming a heroin addict. But guns aren’t the only problem we have in this country that’s also at epidemic levels. We also have a massive STUPIDITY problem in this country.
Bad enough that the Lafayette shooter was a tea party scumbag who also hated women, but during a press conference the night of the shooting, the Governor of Louisiana, republican presidential candidate, Bobby Jindal, said that “We should bow our heads and pray for the victims and their families.” When asked about gun control, he dodged the question like Superman avoiding a bullet.
Think about it for a moment. How utterly MORONIC is it to ask to pray for someone who has just died because some redneck lowlife decided he didn’t like a movie about a woman who flaunts her sexual independence? Bobby Jindal would have been better served to do something in his capacity as Governor to address this problem rather than bow his head and pretend that God cares. What the Hell does he even expect God to do- set the cosmic reset button and make it so this never happened? It’s probably more likely that he prayed to God that this doesn’t come back to haunt him and ruin his shot at the republican nomination. Like he really has a chance. Even his children aren’t that enthused he’s running!
I would dearly love to say that I’m long past giving a damn about any of this, but I’m not. For every single person that dies because some redneck idiot with a detachable penis feels the need to blow his load, it makes me want to track down Wayne LaPierre and beat him into a bloody pulp. It’s kind of ironic considering I’m a pacifist.
Revenge fantasies aside, I guess America’s slow descent into Hell is finally complete. We don’t have to worry about ISIS attacking us- we have our own homegrown terrorists at work doing their job for them. And despite what the republicans may tell you- they don’t have brown skin.
But most of them do wear trucker hats. Stay safe, folks.
I strongly suspect that the ‘gun culture’ of America will never change. Firstly, a constitutional change would be required which is very unlikely and, secondly, those who support gun ownership would continue to own guns regardless.
If it wasn’t legal it would just ‘go underground’ and millions of decent people would be criminalised via a constitutional change.
Ultimately most ‘gun owners’ don’t go around shooting anyone. The odd nutter does – and, of course, the criminals would continue to own and use guns regardless.
To be honest, I think you guys just have to ‘live with it’ – well, you do unless someone shoots you!
God is usually a lame excuse, a distraction and a waste of time as far as I’m concerned. Sometimes God is a reason to shoot people, but calling for “Gun Control” is just speaking in tongues without providing specifics. Epidemic? Look at the hundred leading causes of death and shooting (other than in wars) doesn’t even appear. Simplification is the most egregious form of distortion. Can we leave the hyperbole aside?
Really, what do we do within the law and how do we enforce it and how much faith does it involve in the power of making things illegal?
Many current laws, like background checks, aren’t being enforced consistently, as we saw in South Carolina. What did we do beyond taking down flags, to improve that deadly problem? Seems like another faith-based distraction. What are we willing to put up with to implement “Sensible” gun laws? We have to address this. Who is willing to have a discussion that isn’t about shouting the other guy down and forcing the other guy to use your terminology and accept your numbers without question?
We tend to ignore a more constant level of shootings we get from gang activity, suicides, hunting accidents and allowing children access and focus on 20 million to one odds and we always tend to see scary things as constantly rising. Are we safer now than we were decades ago? I think the answer is yes, despite annual fluctuations. Does rising hatred and anger and even fear and alienation sold 24/7 on-line and on the air have an effect? Can we seriously consider only the number of guns as a factor? Again, simplification and zeal are the enemies of reason.
Anger, hate and violence are indigenous to our society and we don’t do a hell of a lot that I can see to counter it, to shut it down and perhaps because rage is a sales tool and a valuable commodity and a great way to control people.
What I’m trying to say is that by focusing on things like plastic gun stocks and the minutia of gun and ammunition design and racism we are ignoring a bigger picture that has to be addressed and worse: by talking about how much something needs to be done we are not talking about What needs to be done and more than the God merchants are.
What specifically can be done within the restraints of the law, within the ability of regulation and enforcement to manage a society with perhaps 300 million firearms of all kinds — and what can be done about the fact that the public does not want to lose the right to own firearms? The faith based proposition that it’s the NRA alone behind it and not public sentiment seems as silly to me as the faith that God will make things right.
I would love to hear ideas not couched in hyperbole and panic and meanwhile the specific danger to my survival are Heart disease, cancer, lung disease, Alzheimers, organ failure.. . Even motor vehicle trauma fades into the background in comparison.
You are right on every count here Greg. I invariable shake my head when I hear these bible thumpers “thank god” because the tornado only destroyed their house but didn’t kill them. What the fuck? Who sent the tornado?