Meanwhile, President Biden is urging Congress to raise the minimum age to buy an assault weapon from 18 to 21.
Pardon my enthusiasm but, big whoop.
Reforms of any sort beat nothing. But if all the above were signed into law, we’d still be a long way from stanching the flow of blood from gun violence in this country. What we really need is a renaissance — a rebirth in which we reject the cowboy narrative of how we get along and instead create a new version of ourselves.
Tall orders come easily to the muse. But, truly, we can’t fix what ails us without a cultural overhaul that doesn’t just punish violence after the fact but also makes violence a repugnant and ridiculous choice. Somehow, we have to convey to the young that resorting to violence is something only morons would do. Sort of the way we tried to make smokers feel in the 1990s.
Our epidemic of violence is nothing short of an urgent public health issue and should be approached as such. Finding the cure, like that for long covid, will take time. Maybe decades. But recognizing and correctly naming a problem is always the first step.
It’s the culture, my excellent friends. Full stop. And the culture is dripping with blood.
Most people reading this likely understand that banning a certain kind of gun or raising the minimum age to buy an assault weapon might help but isn’t going to solve all our problems. The suspected Uvalde, Tex., shooter had just turned 18 and celebrated by buying himself an AR-15-style rifle, which he then used to slaughter 19 elementary schoolchildren and two teachers.
counterpointAfter Uvalde, I pray with the grieving — and for bold action on guns
Would another three years of maturity — or five? — have dissuaded him? Or would he have figured out how to navigate the black market for weapons? If we stopped selling just the AR-15 and rifles like it tomorrow, there would still be nearly 20 million others in private ownership. Are we going to somehow either confiscate or buy back all of those? Increased security at schools is essential, but we know we can’t turn every school into Fort Knox. We need to understand that we are at war with the culture of violence. And, yes, to paraphrase cartoonist Walt Kelly: The enemy is us.
Thanks to media and entertainment companies that glorify violence, young children and teens today are privy to murder, mayhem — and even pornography — at tragically early ages. Yet, too many times, I’ve heard mainstream, late-night comedians make cracks about porn, dismissing it as no big deal — just another option on the remote. Sexual violence against women, which defines most porn, isn’t funny.
When you think about the effect such diversions have on children, barbaric is too civilized a word for what we’ve tolerated and allowed ourselves to become.
How are younger generations supposed to know how to resolve differences, civilly, when they’ve never seen it done? How are boys and young men to channel their frustrations and anxieties without role models to show…
Read More: Opinion | Gun reform won’t fix our violent culture
