By Jim Heffernan
With headlines like this, how can I not think a lot about the havoc of guns in America. The numbers are horrific. There needs to be better words than tragic and heart-breaking.
September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were attacked, will always be remembered. 3,000 people were killed and we mourned them. We said it meant a vanished world order. We added a new agency to the government and ended up spending trillions of dollars and thousands of lives in foreign wars that went on for decades.
In 2020, 45,222 people died from using guns. That’s more than 15 9-11’s. Our response? A smattering of gun laws that will likely be marginally effective and a multitude of “thoughts and prayers” for the innocent victims.
I wish I could say 2020 was a peak in numbers, but it’s not. It seems we a well on our way to gun deaths representing 16 and maybe 17 9-11’s per year.
If gun deaths were a simple problem, there would be a simple answer. Sadly, it’s a complex problem. But it’s a problem that needs to be addressed .
One of the causes must surely be our national fetish for guns. It’s outrageous to me that there are more guns than people in this country.
It’s very popular to say that “guns are the problem”, but I think that’s a cop-out. I believe the real problems are the too-prevalent embers of hate and resentment that fester in our (mostly male) hearts.
Looking back, I lay a great proportion of the blame on the way we practice politics. Somewhere in the 1970’s it became apparent that the politics of fear and anger were quite often “winning” politics. More and more, we fell for the “shell game” of believing that we could raise ourselves up by pushing other people down.
News media should help, but I feel to a large extent it doesn’t. Too often, in the search for advertising revenue, they play on our fears and resentments.
Somehow we need to work together to change these trends. Maybe legislation can help reduce the carnage. More likely, a return to religion or simple morality is what’s required. Maybe more of us need to realize that maybe the warm feeling we get by having a gun for “self-defense” and “freedom” has more drawbacks than benefits.
We’re all in this together. We got to this point that way and I am positive our only escape will be together.
As always, I welcome sincere, respectful communication at codger817@gmail.com.
I used the following web sites as sources. USA facts has a fascinating graph that shows gun deaths by state in 1980 and 2000. All but a few states showed significant increases, a few showed decreases (blue ones). The Nicholas Kristoph NYTimes article is also worth a look.
https://usafacts.org/data/topics/security-safety/crime-and-justice/firearms/firearm-deaths/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ND-StatsData&msclkid=2eb87e0f45bc1cf9ad7a1dda1c7438b2