Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Tools of Destruction






Once again, another senseless, tragic (mass) shooting has occurred, and more people who should be alive right now, are dead, because someone had a bad day, or a bad life, etc.

My three cents on the issue:

 1. Yes, people with mental health and psychological/emotional issues DO need help, they DO need people to be there for them, and they DO need healthy outlets.

 2. Having said that, while we do need to understand and confront the PROBLEM, murderers do not deserve empathy or understanding. Even IF someone has a mental illness, and "isn't in their right mind", if they do something awful, if they rape, or kill, it IS still a choice that person is making. That kid CHOSE to bring a loaded gun to that event. He CHOSE to murder innocent people before he took his own pathetic life. That was a choice, whether it was "in his right mind" or not. Shooters like that deserve zero empathy, once they have made that choice. Once you cross that kind of line as a person, IMO, fuck you. Those people then deserve nothing but what's coming to them.

 3. The endless "pro gun/anti-gun" debate, and whether "the problem is guns", or "the problem is mental illness", is honestly incredibly tiresome and gross. All people want to do is argue, and virtue signal (people ACROSS the "political spectrum"), and literally get nothing of any value actually DONE to change things, to save lives. Yes, obviously anyone who would do this kind of thing, IS mentally ill. That's a fact. And if you take all the guns away, ALL of them, yes, mental illness and people being broken inside and committing heinous acts will still exist.

But, as I have been pointing out to people for decades, guns, by simply existing, ARE a problem, no matter how people try to rationalize or argue the issue. Guns have one function: to kill/destroy. They are not a tool, like a knife, or a baseball bat, or a shovel, or a chainsaw, or a CAR, or whatever the hell else that people could care to bring up, that crazies HAVE used, in recent times more than ever, to hurt and murder others, that have some other use. Guns' sole function is to destroy. To fire a projectile through something and damage or destroy it. Period. And yes, that CAN be used to defend your home, or your family, or yourself, in case of attack. But that does not change the fundamental nature of the gun, which is inarguable: that it is a tool to harm/kill.

People like to bandy about cute slogans like "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Which, on the most base technical level, IS true. But it's absurd and so far beyond the point. Because while PEOPLE kill people, they are doing it WITH guns. Those GUNS are killing people, by being utilized to do the only thing they were ever meant to do. And to reiterate, yes, that IS a massive problem in and of itself. If guns didn't exist, at all, yes, the world could be and likely would still be a totally mental and scary place. But it would STILL inarguably be a less immediately dangerous one. If someone comes at you with a knife, or a bat, or even a car, you have options. You can at least TRY to flee, you can try to get out of the way, or (excluding the car perhaps), you can even choose to fight for your life. With a gun, someone can hurt or kill you in the blink of an eye, before you can even react, without even trying. It takes zero real effort to squeeze a trigger, be it from point blank range, or from a great distance. There is little to no defense against a loaded gun, unless of course you yourself ALSO have a loaded gun. In which case, it becomes a "shootout" scenario, where you HOPE you're a better shot or a better wannabe commando than the other person, and meanwhile, innocent bystanders can STILL get hurt or killed, by either party.

The point being, that while the issue is FAR more complicated than "it's just guns", and mental illness, drugs, bad parenting, and societal failure/sickness in general, are ALL elements to this insanity. That doesn't change the FACT, that guns merely existing, makes it all so much worse, and so much more dangerous for everybody. Is there an easy answer? No, of course not. Because I can't just snap my fingers right this moment, and make all guns disappear. But, while ridding the world of guns at this point WOULD be hard, it is not impossible. It just would take serious work and concerted effort, and the actual will/desire to do so.

Guns are NOT the only problem, but people acting like they aren't even PART of the problem at all, are naive and ignoring simple, fundamental facts. Guns kill, they were MADE to kill, period. And they offer someone holding a loaded gun, a power over the life and death of ANYONE else around them, a power than can be exercised with, again, almost negligible effort. Mental illness DOES play a big part, as do all those other things. But that does not negate or alter the FACT, that so many shootings have happened, because someone was having a bad day, someone cut them off in traffic, someone said the wrong thing at the wrong time,  that was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back", and they just so happened to have access to a loaded gun in that moment. And guess what? For a LOT of people, being presented that kind of power, ANY time, is dangerous, because most people with power, cannot handle it. They WILL abuse it, given the right motivations, the right circumstances. But people given that kind of power, to end someone else's life in the blink of an eye, without them being able to defend themselves, without you even having to really TRY to kill them, just squeeze a trigger, boom, they're hurt, or dead? In an irrational moment like that, that MOST of us have, where our day sucks, our week sucks, our LIFE sucks? Where you've had it, and you've just snapped, and here in your hand, in your power, is a thing that can kill people, BOOM, just like that? It's too much. 

There is, IMO, no such thing as a "responsible gun owner". There are people who have a high moral fiber and/or great self-discipline. And then there's most other people. A LOT of people, who are generally not "bad people", given the proper circumstances, and then presented a thing that can allow them to act out or vent in the most extreme or evil way possible? A lot of those people would pull the trigger. Why? Because that power is there, they aren't "in their right mind", and the most compelling reason: because they can. I know for a fact, even though I am a good and rational and moral person, that there have been many times in my life, when I've just fucking HAD it, I'm on the point of snapping, because of shitty neighbors, or a really bad day, or work being dogshit, or having a fight with someone, you name it. Where if I had a loaded gun anywhere NEAR me? Even though I am loathe at the thought of just MURDERING someone? I can't say that temptation wouldn't still be there, and be STRONG, that all I had to do was pick it up and pull that trigger. And even for the most "responsible gun owner" in the world, I don't care who you are, there ARE going to be a set of circumstances,  where that would COULD be true for them too.

 It is incredibly rare, almost impossible to find, to have a person who CAN'T be, in the most extreme scenarios, pushed too far, pushed THAT far. That isn't to say all those people are BAD people. But life can really suck, PEOPLE can really suck, and IMO, the existence of a tool that can SO easily kill, the existence of something that SO quickly and SO easily can give you the ultimate power over someone else, you getting to choose whether they live or die? That is not a power that most people should ever have. That isn't spoken from a PRO or ANTI gun "stance". That is just, at the end of the day, practical common sense.

 And yes, I have personally thought out the scenario: "What if my home was attacked by someone with a gun?/ What if I was out somewhere and attacked by someone with a gun?/ What if I HAD a wife and family, and they were threatened by someone with a gun?" And that's a tough, shitty question to ponder. I WOULD want to be able to defend myself, and CERTAINLY would want to be able to defend my family. In fact, if somewhere were threatening me with a gun, much LESS a prospective mate and children, I can tell you right now, if I ALSO had a loaded gun in that scenario? I'd be extremely tempted to empty the goddamn clip into them, not just to stop them, but for having the audacity to threaten MY life or the lives of people I love, in the first place. That is how I would feel, even though I am generally AGAINST guns and AGAINST killing, in that moment.

I DO get that mentality, for sure. But that still doesn't change the nature of the gun. And frankly, human society is NEVER going to progress, until we actually make the conscious CHOICE, to progress past our paranoia and obsession with weapons, with guns, and bombs, and vile, evil things like man-made viruses and chemical weapons, etc. Is that "pie in the sky"? Sure, you can say it is. But it's also the Truth. Humanity will NEVER experience meaningful progress as a race, until we are actively willing to let go of our tools of destruction, and move on from them. There is no other way about it. The "next step" in our evolution as a people, is impossible, without evolving BEYOND things like guns. And for us to survive, that moment in our history HAS to come about, sooner rather than later.

 No, it isn't easy, and there IS no easy answer, unfortunately. But it's either believe that it IS possible, and that it CAN happen, that it eventually HAS to happen and WILL happen. Or else you adopt the absurd (and far too common) attitude that "oh it'll never change", and succumb to the reality that eventually, humanity will just kill themselves off. Which is precisely what will happen if we never CHOOSE to evolve past tools of destruction. And personally, I choose to believe in a future where mankind actually grows the hell up, and that if I ever am lucky enough to get to HAVE children, that there IS a "Better Tomorrow" we can create, for them to inherit.