Thanks for your response!

I agree with a lot of your points as well. Know what? I used to be a gun nut.

As my teenage hormones are behind me now, I quite honestly hate them. Even recreationally, they’re loud, they’re dirty (lead exposure, yay), they’re expensive to feed, they do horrific things in the wrong hands, and there’s the psychological burden of constantly making sure I’m mentally fit to have access to them. (I believe I am, but anybody is vulnerable, especially with all the stresses nowadays.)

And I think this is where a lot of disagreement comes: Idealism vs pragmatism.

You’re right. Ideally, civil society shouldn’t be wielding deadly force, even though for a while in our history, it was quite necessary.

You’re also right, in that realistically, we’re way past that point.

While my writing above was specifically about the people’s responsibility to maintain a civil presence that demands respect, (Speak softly and carry a big stick, if you will.), the inward societal problems can’t be denied.

My strong belief is that things like shootings are a symptom of a generations-sick society. There was a time when gun ownership was common, and these things just didn’t happen. I mean, in some regions, high-schoolers would bring responsibly transported rifles to school, and it was considered normal! Schools had marksmanship clubs!

A reasonable degree of respect and sanity was the assumption rather than the exception.

But, family ties and neighborly relationships used to be stronger. People had friends and social programs. A single worker could reasonably expect to not only find a job, but support a house and family.

The wealth disparity was astronomically lower than it was today. Society as an organism wasn’t nearly as stressed to a breaking point.

And as for the guns thing, people were generally knowledgeable and responsible with securing and educating about the hefty responsibility that comes with weaponry.

People still killed themselves or others on occasion, unfortunately, but it was anomolous instead of contagious.

But now…guns have become a status symbol and a fandom, an idol even, and all the small cracks in that previous society have become chasms. Desperation is the norm, sadness and misery are generally commonplace, education is absolutely abysmal and even holding a gun safety seminar near a school would be considered controversial and taboo.

Nobody has friends or knows their neighbors, corporate news outlets keep squeezing peoples’ amygdalas until they’re scared out of their wits, kids are under more pressure than ever, and nobody’s parents are around if they’re even together at all…(Statistically, they aren’t.)

Why? Jobs. Employers.

All of this stems from a power structure that wanted to breed a dumber, more desperate, more complacent consumer and employee to farm for riches. They slashed and burned education, they alienated us from the sweat of our brow, turned us on each other, they make us reliant on their goods and services and price-fix our lives out of reach, force us into enormous debt, and they ensure our continued collective misery.

None of the solutions to violence, whether with cars or guns or pointy sticks, is going to go away unless we drastically fix our education and stop letting people fall into such miserable places that murder of self or others seems to be the only way out. That’s why it’s such a frustrating issue. No single bill or edict is going to solve it in a single generation.

And sadly, this regime seems to be aggressively accelerating in the opposite direction, because with more chaos they can justify a stronger fist, and the feedback loop continues.

As for “military style weapons”, that’s another topic and I’ve rambled too much already hehe. But I don’t believe user-ergonomics don’t necessarily equate to “better mass-murder machine.” But I get your point, battlefield hardware doesn’t belong in just-anybody’s hands.

We have an issue with licensure now though: This is a regime that would absolutely be fine with demanding party loyalty to sell your constitutional rights back to you.

I also believe the unfortunate reality is that, while many fascist-friendly police forces are gearing up with actual military-issued hardware, and privatized corporate “security forces” will likely be more common, responsible civilians need to maintain some kind of parity to safeguard our liberties.

Fudd rifles and .22LR plinkers don’t scare dudes with APCs and 40mm launchers, and they need to be encouraged to use their words, so maybe they pause a minute when the tangerine-hitler tries to rile them into marching on their own neighbors.

Lol hope this was at least fun to read. I don’t mean to go off on tangents. 😅 Hope you have an excellent one. <3