A Modest Proposal for which I Have Almost No Hope

The Las Vegas mass shooting and the Texas Tech student shooting of the campus police officer have reawakened the gun rights and gun control activists hurling invectives at each other. To me the slogans and clichés seem to be ways of avoiding addressing the issues of violence in our society, gun and otherwise. As tragic and evil as mass shootings are, they account for a very small portion of the gun deaths and injuries in this country. Accidents (including children playing with and finding guns), suicide, domestic violence account for far more gun deaths and injuries than mass shootings. Attitudes as well as services for people with mental health needs is essential.  Yes, then there is intentional crime as well. And yes, the violence of our society is not at all limited to guns, though their effective morbidity makes them an understandable focus.

My proposal is that all presuppositions and preconditions be excluded from public dialog about violence and the various means of violence in our society. What we have now can’t even be called a debate. It is more like spoiled, frightened children screaming insults at each other. Can we agree that the violence that comes in so many forms is not healthy for our society and devote ourselves to working together to find effectively ways to reduce it? Though changes in laws and the legal system may be included, I’m talking about a drastic change in our social consensus that makes all such violence unacceptable and treats all implements of violence with extreme respect and caution. Of course, some people won’t comply. Plenty of drivers, businesses, private citizens already operate outside both laws and social norms, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need laws and community consensus for social cohesion. Those who suggest that we can’t or must have total compliance or results before doing anything only prevent us from doing what we can to be better.

One of the huge barriers to this kind of dialog and hard work is our human propensity to locate problems outside of ourselves and put blame on others. The sorts of “we don’t have a gun problem, we have a heart problem” does exactly that. Those who spread such clichés presume that their hearts are ok, and other people have a problem with their hearts.  Similarly, blaming the NRA is a cop out that results in paralysis. I suggest Jesus’ approach of taking the logs out of our own eyes first would go a long way toward addressing this gigantic, lethal stalemate in our society. (Matthew 7:3-5) As long as we refuse to move our positions off dead center until someone else moves, we will be hopelessly trapped in this death spiral.