Enough is Never Enough

This morning I had a thought while I was making coffee that helped me to see the issue of gun violence from a slightly different perspective. Conflict, violence, murder…these are things that have been and will always be with us. We won’t ever pass enough laws or develop better mental health policy to the point where we will stop people from killing each other in some way. I think guns are a different story.

In general, firearms distance the user from the activity of injuring or killing their target. If guns had never been invented, the act of injuring or killing someone would still be experienced in much the same way as it was for most of human history. Causing another person bodily harm required close, personal contact, and was significantly more intimate and physically difficult. As warfare and firearm technology developed, the distance at which it was possible to inflict harm on another person grew. One no longer had to experience the death of their target up close. The emotional cost decreased, the effort required decreased, and especially in cases of war, the overall number of casualties increased exponentially.

The same considerations are true with domestic gun violence. In every conceivable sense, It is simply far too easy in our country to kill someone using a gun. With advances in technology come advances in responsibility. Unfortunately, the historical pattern seems to be that responsibility always lags behind technological advance. It is long past time for us to act in unity for the sake of stopping our steady flow of gun related injury and death. Our collective irresponsibility is costing us more lives every day. As the most vulnerable among us are repeatedly slain in plain view, the heart and soul of our nation is breaking in two. I’m exhausted. I’m sure you are too. Don’t look away. Don’t stop speaking out and demanding change, in our gun laws, in our healthcare policies, and in our own lives.

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
-Isaiah 2:4

For some inspiring direction and hope, heck out https://rawtools.org/