The rash of recent shootings and mass murders has folks a’hollering for gun control, as if guns have taken to busting out of sporting good stores and running down streets shooting people. Well, I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but guns can’t, and don’t kill by themselves. It is only when guns are played with by humans that they become deadly. Humans, on the other hand, do rush down streets killing people, and guns are only one of the many ways that they do so. There are sick bastards running about killing the heck out of people with knives, vehicles and bombs too.
No sir, I reckon that it ain’t guns that we need to control, but rather we need to control the way we think. It’s the thoughts planted in people’s brains that allow evil to exist and grow, not some machined piece of steel in a rack. Weapons only provide opportunity. Thoughts pull triggers and pins, press detonators and steer vehicles. So, why ain’t the public screaming for something to be done with people’s thoughts? Why ain’t there calls for people to have to register what they are thinking? Now, you might think I’m just being sarcastic here, but I’m sure as heck not. You see, the very moment that we begin to really care about each other’s feelings and thoughts, will be the very moment that we begin to have us a whole heap lot less mass murder on the street.
However, the stipulation that dooms that awesome peace/love/brotherhood thought to failure, is the line that says ‘to really care about each other’s feelings and thoughts’. For, if there is one thing that human nature has taught us throughout the centuries, more than any other, is that Satan will have frostbite on his balls of jolly, and halls of holly, before we truly give two-shits about what happens to anyone else unless affected. Yep, there ain’t no doubt about it, thoughts are a hell of a lot more deadly than any weapon. And, that includes the thoughts we do have, and the ones that we don’t.
Therefore, the answer to stopping the violence is to change how we think, what we think, when we think, and why we think the way we think. The reality is that we can give everyone in the world guns, with unlimited ammunition, but if we’ve taught them to love and respect life, not a single shot would ever be fired. It is not the mentally ill we need to fear, it is those allowing it to go untreated. It is not the angry we need to hate, it is those who drive them to point of desperation. The people responsible for mass murders don’t commit them, they incite people to commit them, and yet are never held responsible.
If we want the murder to stop, we’ll need to rid ourselves of leaders in business, health, politics and religion who preach one thing, but teach something totally different. We’ll need to rid churches, governments and corporations of traitors and cowards who care only for themselves, and stop their spread of lies and hate for personal profit. We’ll need to hold those who cause the problems responsible, and charge them as accomplices to these horrific crimes. And, we’ll need to do it soon, because if we don’t, the violence is going to get a whole lot worse.
