Tonight I'm feeling a little inspired and definitely off-topic.
For a while now, our nation's government is pursuing a way to satisfy public discontent of the unnecessary deaths of innocents resulting from questionable members of society using guns as merciless weapons in acts of violence.
I feel our government is feeling pressure to do something and is ignoring the root cause- incorrectly going about it.
First, the deaths of innocents are unacceptable and trigger many concerns. From these deaths, we as a civilized society are compelled for justice and to prevent this from happening, so we enlist government to help in a legal fashion.
What can government legally do? Due to the freedoms our government supports and courageously defends, it cannnot effectively lock up potential offenders, change the hearts/minds of potential offenders, quarantine/isolate/protect prospective targets, and any other human interference.
Government has assigned itself to deal with the device of killing- the weapons used. It is the simplest and easiest for government to implement. There are problems in this approach- it unnecessarily compromises the freedoms we all hold dear. Fundamentally it fails to address the root cause. I believe gun control is no solution to the problem and some of this effort should be used for other options & issues.
The Texas knifeman last week showed that gun control won't make us any safer. Guns don't equate violence- anything used as a weapon equates violence. The young CT man easily side-stepped the background checks. In addition many gun laws aren't enforced/followed consistently. What happens when this new gun reform is passed, then found it doesn't work and doesn't prevent killings? To whom do we apologize?
Although there probably are many things beyond my understanding, I believe government can help in different ways. After witnessing the Affordable Healthcare Reform aka "Obamacare" make it through all three branches of governnment (Legislative- Congress, Executive- Presient, and Judicial- Supreme Court), I'm convinced our government can do anything (pro or con). Currently government isn't considering other options.
It seems our society is morally & ethically eroding. The media and entertainment industry is out of control (government can help here). Too many violent movies/video games that "out do" the last in terms of action, gore, violence, etc. News media practically glamorizes murderers, court trials for killing, live feeds from vehicle chases/stand offs, etc. Too many ideas, situations, circumstances, and justifications for violence are constantly on TV/movies/games.
Unknowingly we allowed this violence into our homes and delivered it to our impressionable children. Now after years of this "out do" cycle, profanity and violence are common place on public television and in the movies. We've become numb to it. It's caused us to change how we see circumstances and value others & life itself- it's cheapened it.
The killers are profiled and found to have some unstable fabric. What I find interesting is most function without notice or being recognized as unstable in a threatening manner, which frightens me to think that there may be many others with this hidden potential.
The Batman movie shooter in CO brought to life a violent movie scene. The CT shooter wanted to "out do" the summer camp mass killing done by another in a foriegn country (brought to us via our efficient media industry). The college shootings are copy-cat in design (again brought to us via media). These ideas were spawned from seeing something then considering it and ultimately bringing it to life.
This leads me to say, before any action or trigger is ever pulled an idea/thought has to occur. If minds are polluted with violence as an acceptable action, violence then becomes an option when adversity arises. To me this is the root cause.
What can government do without violating feedoms of speech (as this becomes the argument of media & entertainment)? I'm talking about all options including out-of-the-box ideas- not just legislation. There are some smart people out there that may have solutions. All I can say is kudos to CBS (media) for not replaying the shocking Ware leg fracture from the NCAA tourney. If this kind of social responsibility became the new norm, there's still hope.
As you already know, I'm optimistic- I fish for crappie!
If you believe in the power of prayer, pray for our leaders, this country, and that His Will be done to fix this broken world.