GUNS VS SYMPTOMS AND DISEASES

So, in most cases, we seem to be left with the two options concerning the current crisis we have with people obtaining guns and slaying a great number of innocent people:

 

1)       Take guns away from everybody.  If we cannot all be responsible with guns, let’s take them all away.  The net result of this would be, IMHO, that only none-law-abiding citizens will have guns.

2)      Give guns to everybody.  Arm teachers in schools and bus drivers on the Metro.  Like nuclear weapons the only real deterrent is to make sure that if you are going to shoot at someone that they have the capability to shoot back.  IMHO, another disaster waiting to happen.

 

But what if guns are not the problem real problem?  True, they are a problem all right.  And maybe it’s the type and amount of guns that are a problem – but are they the core of the problem or mostly a symptom?  If mice keep getting into your home, the problem is not mice - it might more likely be the cleanliness of your house or the hole in your foundation leading to a warm place to sleep.

 

As a society do we value the dignity of the human person – and by that I mean each and every human person?  Why, even in our entertainment, is it so often the solution to the problem with other people (from aliens to men in black hats) death?

 

Ethics is difficult to teach in our schools because it smacks of a Judeo/Christian heritage.  It is replaced by an intolerant Toleration policy.  As a society there is a movement away from the family as the building block of society model so society is in flux there too.  The faith that was the foundation of so much of civilization is losing sway, the focus of life is more toward what makes the individual emotionally happy rather than what is good for the community and nation. 

 

Oh, I could go on whining couldn’t I?  But here is the point: We have become more narcissistic, we have lost a sense of the dignity of life, have convinced ourselves that we have a right to be happy, we continue to remove social restraints, we have moved out of well connected communities, families are divided, and we have guns coming out of our ears.  Will the ultimate solution be to simply get rid of guns?  If we are too fat is the solution to limit food distribution?  If we are too drunk is prohibition a good thing?  Well, maybe to some extent.  But are guns the problem or is it something closer to core of the society that we are creating for ourselves?

 

Just asking for deeper thought on the question.