HeartofVegas
*Full disclaimer: spelling and grammar are prone to error.
Following the Vegas shooting there was a renewed, albeit short debate on gun control. This quickly divulged into highly devise slug fest of facts, moral superiority, and emotionally charged irrationality. Little doubt that anyone has escaped a discussion or its' echo, less you holed up with Patrick Star for a few weeks. Over a few discussions and what I was seeing on TV and from politicians, it was very evident we aren't getting anywhere in gun control discussions without getting to the core of the issue.
with me
Did I need to do that....no I didn't
So what is lies at the heart of it?
Well, over the dizzying week gun control was in the news cycle, I kept coming across gun death statistics. "Over a million and a half killed by guns since 1968". Naturally I fact checked such a statistic because it is staggering. Sure enough it happened to be true. What was even more surreal was over a million of those were suicide related.
-In case you don't trust me. I am pretty bad at math https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm
Over two million people have committed suicide since that period in time and that accounts for about 1 in 50 deaths. If that doesn't make someone sit back and think for a second...... and for some people it doesn't
.........people....like me at times.
I sure have been guilty of it. A combination of ignorance, numbness, lack of empathetic understanding and difficulty for my neurons to wrap my head around such statistics. Something that I've heard and creeps into peoples brains when they hear gun suicide, or suicide statistics in general is, "well at least they aren't killing others". Or, "they will find a way to kill themselves someway". (individuals who live through a suicide attempt are very unlikely to attempt another).((what makes a suicide attempt successful 99% of the time....a gun)).
The heart of the matter is, we don't really value human life. At least human life as it pertains outside of our daily sphere. This I think is part of the limitations we have as humans. Some of the tragedy and loss of life we cannot comprehend unless we have lived it. We can read, hear, listen, see everything under then sun about something, but until we have felt that emotion firsthand, our empathy and motivation for change is somewhat limited. I have never had a member of my family killed. I have never had close friends murdered in cold blood.
The question is how to motivate the population as a whole to value the lives of people they probably would have never met or interacted with, because there have been millions of lives lost to guns and suicide. If people value other humans lives, then yes there is something that can be done to mitigate the lives lost. Throwing ones hands up and saying, "well there are already guns, so it won't matter" Or, "We can't stop people from killing themselves". is just saying one doesn't care. Then they truly don't give a damn if people die. That is the core of the issue.
If that all seems a bit harsh,
The truth makes should make you uncomfortable
Now for a cup on the lighter side.
There are a lot of amazing people involved in mental health, gun safety, hunting and gun advocacy. It would be a disservice to make it seem like everything is doom and gloom. I don't expect that society comes together on this issue and sings kuum bai ya, but if people could approach the subject with the understanding that it is a balancing act between the value of a peoples lives vs the rights afforded to individuals and the enjoyment/sport/piece of mind that those rights include.....then....then maybe we might make a little progress in a discussion that has been stalemated and toxic too long.