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The cycle seems to have no end in sight. A mass shooting (or two, or three) happens and the left calls for gun control. Meanwhile, the right counters with anti-gun control talking points. It’s made it to where the actual problems that cause gun violence cannot come to light because they’re always framed in emotional responses rather than seen as a whole and addressed appropriately.
A thread by RedState’s Joe Cunningham on Twitter yesterday caught my attention yesterday. As he noted in the thread, neither he nor I have the clout on Twitter to get the thread the attention it deserves.
There is a lot of speculation on the alleged manifesto. So far, there is no confirmation that it was, in fact, written by the shooter. The board where it was posted is as much a trolling community as anything. Authorities are investigating it.
— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) August 4, 2019
If it was not, in fact, written by the terrorist, then the left has to have a conversation about how quickly they are getting suckered into believing story after story of a right-wing lunatic committing hate crimes inspired by the alt-right's rhetoric.
— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) August 4, 2019
And we have got to address the growing impact of our rhetoric on those who are mentally unwell, along with mental health in general.
— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) August 4, 2019
We are to blame for the violence around us. We don't do enough to fight the growing animosity and the dehumanization we inflict on people we disagree with. As a society, we have dismissed our political opposites as unworthy of addressing in any meaningful sense.
— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) August 4, 2019
We are reactive, not contemplative. We are stubborn, not open. We quickly jump to a conclusion or accusation. Not just the left. Not just the right. Both sides. Without fail.
— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) August 4, 2019
We've got to learn to stop talking past and stop dunking, and start talking to and start seeking understanding.
— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) August 4, 2019
He’s 100% correct. We’re busy dunking on our political opposites instead of listening to each other. Both sides have valid concerns. The right is doing it wrong every time we simply sit back and point to mental health issues every time there’s a mass shooting. It’s not that mental health isn’t the cause in these events; anyone who can walk into a crowded place and start shooting random people clearly has a mental health issue. Sane people don’t do that. But pinning it to mental health alone is disingenuous and acts as a way of shutting down conversations instead of having them.
This reaction by the right is often prompted by the left that is even more unhinged from reality with most of their gun control rhetoric. They jump to gun control and confiscations every time there’s a major shooting. They point fingers and make accusations before knowing the circumstances behind the event. By circumstances, I’m not referring to the shooting event itself. I mean the circumstances that allowed the person to have access to the gun in the first place and the factors that led them to become a mass shooter. All too often, new laws get enacted that would have had zero effect on the mass shooting that often becomes their namesake.
But most of the time, there’s no law that would have prevented the shooter from acquiring firearms other than complete bans on such weapons. This leaves both sides in a pickle.
Banning firearms cannot be allowed. The line has already been drawn far to the left of the original righteous intent of the 2nd Amendment. Now that the push is to ban “assault weapons” or “military-style firearms” or whatever other term they use against rifles like the AR-15, mass shootings like El Paso, Dayton, and Gilroy lend credence to these arguments. But there’s a major caveat the left ignores. The 2nd Amendment was not designed to protect hunters and homeowners. It was intended to prevent an oppressive government from extending tyranny over the people. Hunting and personal protection might be the reason many have for keeping firearms, but the founders’ greatest fear wasn’t deer or home invaders. The founders feared government itself, and we should as well. The dominance of firearms in America is arguably the only thing that has kept America free for so long.
It’s easy for progressives to say if we remove all the guns then we’ll remove all the violence, but that’s simply not the case. Even if we look past the logistics of rounding up hundreds of millions of firearms from 130 million lawful gun owners, criminals will still have their weapons, as would the government. The 2nd Amendment allows citizens to protect themselves from each other as well as from government action that would destroy America if ever allowed to go into effect.
On the other hand, it’s getting harder for gun owners to argue that we can solve the gun violence problem by investing in mental health. Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, was diagnosed and treated by multiple mental health professionals. We can point to mental health until we’re blue in the face, but it’s not going to change the reality that as long as firearms remain in circulation, previously law-abiding citizens with mental health issues will get their hands on them and commit heinous crimes.
Bottom line; Confiscating guns will put Americans at risk while pointing solely at mental health issues will allow mass shootings to continue. This means any solution must be thought through and weighed based on a sober gathering of the facts and a close examination of the pros and cons surrounding any actions.
There may be no full-blown solution to the mass shooting epidemic that seems to be rearing its ugly head. But as long as we’re busy dunking on each other instead of talking through the issues, any solutions proposed will be inadequate.
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