Guns
This tweet replays in my brain regularly. Dan Hodges, on Twitter:
In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.
Others may draw different conclusions from reading that tweet but here’s mine: fixing America’s laws on guns is hopeless. Our broken, puerile, reckless, heedless, thoughtless, irresponsible, unreasonable, STUPID, deadly stance on guns will persist until the demise of the republic. More required reading, one I re-read regularly: Our Moloch by Gary Wills:
The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it?
…
It has the power to destroy the reasoning process. It forbids making logical connections. We are required to deny that there is any connection between the fact that we have the greatest number of guns in private hands and the greatest number of deaths from them. Denial on this scale always comes from or is protected by religious fundamentalism. Thus do we deny global warming, or evolution, or biblical errancy. Reason is helpless before such abject faith.
Reason is helpless before such abject faith.
Comments
Alexander Micek
Well, I guess I’ve been reading kottke too long. He posted the SAME EXACT two things about gun violence (among other good links).