I was prepared to do a long essay on America and its love of Guns… [View all]

[MrScorpio]

But then I asked myself, "What's the point?"

Because, unless we start addressing the cultural phenomena behind rampant gun violence, the fear of that violence and dealing with the utilitarianism that facilitates gun violence, we're never going to solve this problem by not understanding and acknowledging the problem at hand.

There's that long-standing American tradition that says that shooting that other mother-fucker will solve your problems. The other mother-fucker probably feels the say way about you, I'm sure.

We have to dismiss any arguments that the only way to stop gun violence is with the threat of more gun violence.

Or that other types of violence equates with gun violence… Knives, swords and hammers do not.

Then there's the fallacy that states that your freedom is secure from a "tyrannical" American government because you're armed. Which is fucking ridiculous to think that anyone who's equipped with small arms is any threat to an entity that has jets, tanks, ships and buys ammo in enough bulk to fill a bunch of warehouses.

No, we need a better approach…

One that gets most people to believe than being armed to the teeth causes more problems than it solves. Those people, in turn, start to change the culture of guns and take action against the rate of gun violence.

Americans, in many ways, believe that they're alone and that they have to fend for themselves, instead of looking at themselves as part of the greater American community and it should be important to work towards the betterment of that greater community. A lot of people arm themselves because they view that greater community as a direct threat.

Knowing that you're part of a greater community, that you have a responsibility towards making sure that it needs to be safe and secure and that a culture of gun violence ultimates threatens us all is the first step in a long journey of change.

We all need to think beyond our selves in order to create real change. In this matter and in a lot of others.