Day: November 10, 2018

Mass Shootings Thoughts and Prayers — The wishing of “thoughts and prayers” after  mass shootings is being mocked in some circles as simplistic to the point of being meaningless.

We have come to agree.

In fact, we think it as simplistic, meaningless and ineffective to wish “thoughts and prayers” as it is to blame access to guns  for the tragedies as is done in the same knee-jerk fashion by those who mock the wishing of “thoughts and prayers.”

In the 1980s, most states made it difficult for a private citizen to carry a hand gun. Gun rights activist made it an issue and today it is relatively easy to do so. The murder rate has been halved and sometimes in dramatic fashion.

This is what the activists predicted while their opponents loudly claimed things would get much worse.

So now we have the issue of mass shootings which have become a several-times a year occurrence.

Those who desire to disarm the sane and law-abiding cynically use them to advance their political cause.

We, however, think it is far more about culture than it is about having access to immaterial objects.

We have written several times about how school shootings started after abortion was declared a right. Correlation is not causation but correlations are something worth pointing out, and this correlation makes sense.

Teach that it is up to the individual to determine whether a human life exists, and, well, who is to judge if an individual chooses in a way other than you would?

How about the manner in which our society addresses the most important philosophical question: Why are we here?

We teach our young that our existence is but due to a mere sequence of random events. Our courts, in fact, forbid teaching that we are designed, despite the quite  reasonable inference of it being so.

Imagine someone being on a moral fence and being inculcated by society that he is but an accident of nature and he should “do as thy will”. Now, imagine that someone being inculcated that he was created to love his neighbor. Which message is most likely to send him to the good side of the fence?

We grant that even the right cultural message isn’t going to completely solve the problem. Limiting access to guns (and knives and cars) for those with objective psychological problems is important. Maybe this requires bringing back mental institutions.

Still, the Vegas and synagogue murderers would have passed the filter for sanity. The wise realize that perfect safety is a chimera, and that is why the sane and law-abiding need access to guns.

Mass Shootings Thoughts and Prayers