29 dead and 53 wounded. That’s the tally from last weekend’s mass shootings in the US. World leaders were quick to send condolences, usually in the form of “we are with you” type statements such as that from Angela Merkel. Perhaps the only one who pushed diplo-speak to the edge was, of course, Czech president Miloš Zeman, who wrote to Donald Trump “I believe and hope, that the people of the United States and you as their representative, will fight for a better and safer America, where such despicable and desperate acts don’t belong.”
The number of US citizens killed by their own guns in their own land now exceeds the number of US casualties in all wars combined, beginning with the Revolutionary War. However, in a nation fractured by a culture of entitlement, freedom means the freedom to own your own cache of weapons to “protect” yourself from your fellow citizens, and their weapons. Everyone should own and carry a gun, from teachers in the classroom to mothers in the grocery store.
And so, the spiral of mass killing and gun-deaths continues, despite the fact that every single study conclusively demonstrates, that the number of civilian gun deaths in any country is directly related to the number of guns. In the US, there are 325.000.000 guns in private hands, more than in the other top 25 gun-owning countries combined. The National Rifle Association slogan of “guns don’t kill people, people do” paradoxically exposes the real truth, that in the US, the “people” have deformed the ideas and ideals of the Founding Fathers to a degree once thought unimaginable.
“Fighting for a better and safer America” means getting rid of guns in the home. Period. There is no other proven way to lower gun deaths. With no new gun-control measures following the Newtown massacre of schoolchildren, America has now crossed the line of de-facto sanctioning gun murders of all, young and old alike. Gun shootings are just as common as getting a bagel at the bakery. Ignorance and fear, fueled by a political gun lobby of pseudointellectual red-necks, are poisoning the soul of the nation, as it spirals into the cultural morass of what can only be described as blind stupidity.
published: 6. 8. 2019