By Will Bloodworth, The HollowNet Contributor
Time to poke the Facebook "there was a shooting
spree yesterday, so let's chime in on gun control" bear: (WARNING: long
post is long.)
- Are guns the primary issue? Simple answer: no.
- Less-simple answer: The primary issues are mental health stigmatization and a categorical failure of our society's sense of itself.
- Less-simple answer: The primary issues are mental health stigmatization and a categorical failure of our society's sense of itself.
Will's incredibly safe assumptions:
1) If we make mental health care both a priority of the USA's "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"™ slogan, AND make a clean bill of mental health a conditional requirement of firearms ownership, fewer people will die from mass shootings, and countless fewer people will suffer from untreated depression, psychoses, bipolarity, PTSD, personality disorders, etc. Pay for it with taxes, and I won't complain once.
2) Requiring regular periodic driver license-style testing for firearms education, safety training, maintenance, and even marksmanship training would lower deaths stemming from accidental shootings, theft/misuse of poorly-stored/secured/maintained weapons, and from failed attempts at self/home defense and/or improper public discharge of firearms.
3) Teaching students/adults about the world we live in, and about different cultures, religions, ideologies, etc. will lead to less "fear of the Other" xenophobic violence. Also, critical thinking classes should be mandatory curriculum. The ratio of Islamic extremist/terrorists to nonviolent Muslims is 1:[insert huge number here]. Sikhs are not Muslims. Brown people are not inherently evil. Not every other country in the world is as pro-Jesus, pro-gun, pro-representative democracy, pro-capitalism, etc. as we are. And we need to ensure that citizens know that these things, in and of themselves, are not a threat to our country or our "way of life".
4) Regarding news/pseudo-news outlets: no more making shooters famous. Furthermore, if you wish to self-classify as a "news outlet", you may NOT present editorial opinion as news (and when presented, it must be made clear during the broadcast when info is editorial or factual), and if information is presented without factual veracity, or the outlet is being deliberately misleading, they lose the right to classify as a news outlet. Canada has laws against lying in news broadcasts, as should we. The perpetuation of agendas, fear-mongering and divisiveness pushed by the US' mainstream media is doubtlessly contributing to these deaths. It needs to stop.
There are your "real issues". Not a single one of them would require the confiscation of rightfully-owned firearms, and all of them add to a safer and more prosperous nation. Please share your thoughts.
1) If we make mental health care both a priority of the USA's "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"™ slogan, AND make a clean bill of mental health a conditional requirement of firearms ownership, fewer people will die from mass shootings, and countless fewer people will suffer from untreated depression, psychoses, bipolarity, PTSD, personality disorders, etc. Pay for it with taxes, and I won't complain once.
2) Requiring regular periodic driver license-style testing for firearms education, safety training, maintenance, and even marksmanship training would lower deaths stemming from accidental shootings, theft/misuse of poorly-stored/secured/maintained weapons, and from failed attempts at self/home defense and/or improper public discharge of firearms.
3) Teaching students/adults about the world we live in, and about different cultures, religions, ideologies, etc. will lead to less "fear of the Other" xenophobic violence. Also, critical thinking classes should be mandatory curriculum. The ratio of Islamic extremist/terrorists to nonviolent Muslims is 1:[insert huge number here]. Sikhs are not Muslims. Brown people are not inherently evil. Not every other country in the world is as pro-Jesus, pro-gun, pro-representative democracy, pro-capitalism, etc. as we are. And we need to ensure that citizens know that these things, in and of themselves, are not a threat to our country or our "way of life".
4) Regarding news/pseudo-news outlets: no more making shooters famous. Furthermore, if you wish to self-classify as a "news outlet", you may NOT present editorial opinion as news (and when presented, it must be made clear during the broadcast when info is editorial or factual), and if information is presented without factual veracity, or the outlet is being deliberately misleading, they lose the right to classify as a news outlet. Canada has laws against lying in news broadcasts, as should we. The perpetuation of agendas, fear-mongering and divisiveness pushed by the US' mainstream media is doubtlessly contributing to these deaths. It needs to stop.
There are your "real issues". Not a single one of them would require the confiscation of rightfully-owned firearms, and all of them add to a safer and more prosperous nation. Please share your thoughts.
Note from Matt Holloway: This is an excellent piece of analysis on gun control
from a good friend who lacking a better term I will call a "The HollowNet Contributor" retroactive to before the show was even an idea.
Full disclosure: Will and I greatly differ
politically, religiously and philosophically. But, I know him to have great
intellectual integrity and character. So I urge you all to read Will's take on
the knee jerk calls for a gun grab following the tragedy in Oregon. I couldn't
have written a response better.
The Only place I really differ, is that I don't trust
the medical establishment to act in the public good without policy interference
from a Federal Government who has co-opted them through Obamacare.
Orignially Published on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/time-poke-bear-onthere-shooting-spree-yesterday-so-lets-holloway
Photo Credit By Bbjeter (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Photo Credit By Bbjeter (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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