A different perspective on the issue of guns
There is no short term solution to this problem. Let’s just start right there.
You cannot take away all the guns. Period. And for all of you thinking this is what will happen – IT WILL NOT. Period. It may become harder to acquire guns, but no one will be coming into your home to take yours away. Let’s just start there.
And just because the government will likely make it harder to get guns – let’s be real. If someone WANTS a gun, they will FIND a gun, whether by legal means or otherwise.
On the other side – you cannot simply arm everyone. This would be messy, and problematic for all kinds of reasons. Certainly you can argue that “an armed society is a polite society”. But do you REALLY think arming everyone is the answer? I know I can certainly think of PLENTY of people I NEVER want to see with a gun, how about you?
Placing armed police or soldiers in schools and street corners is NOT the answer. We DO NOT, and WILL NOT live in such a police state. That is not what this nation is about, and that is no solution to the problem, either.
SO – what IS the solution, then? I believe that there is a two-fold solution, but it is NOT short term, and it is NOT a quick fix.
What is it?
Education and Health Care reforms. This is where the answers lie.
We need an education system that is not politicized, compromised, and constantly been torn down and subjugated to arbitrary and uninformative tests. We need our education system not be dictated by bureaucrats with no experience in the field. We need to allow teachers to TEACH, and we need to have critical thinking and deductive reasoning be given more importance and respect.
Our political leaders, no matter how much they may claim to be for education reform, DO NOT WANT YOU EDUCATED! Let’s start with that truth right off the bat, shall we?
An educated society would question their self-interest and inaction. Educated people wouldn’t accept the spoon-feeding of their BS and personal agendas. Educated people would not elect people based on fear-mongering and charisma alone. Educated people might make better choices for themselves – and that would mean LESS laws and LESS rule by those “in power”.
Pessimistic? No, I do not believe so. Realistic. All throughout history we see leaders hoarding the education for themselves, disempowering their people. And we see teachers struggling against this – Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, and the like. Keeping the people uninformed and uneducated serves those in power far more than having educated people who might question them and their actions.
How does this mix into the gun control issue? Better educated individuals might think twice before resorting to an act of violence. Better educated people might notice that someone is on the verge of a breakdown or notice another sign that someone is in distress that might be displayed. Better education is about empowerment.
And let’s face another important fact here. Gun violence is about power. I have a gun – you do not. But if there were other resources to empower people, it is possible that they will THINK CRITICALLY before resorting to violence.
And this leads into the second solution – Health care. We have to examine the fact that our health care system is NOT the best. Not even close.
We may have the best doctors, nurses and medical personnel in the world, but this is of little good to people if they have no access to care! We do not focus on wellness care, we focus on sick care, and are suffering as such. We have unbelievably high rates of disease that are proven to be stress-induced, and rather than work to alleviate the stress, we wait until the breaking point has been reached and passed, and then work to salve the bloodletting.
We do not encourage people to seek counseling until there is a problem, and we still stigmatize mental-health. Worse, our primary solution is simply to prescribe drugs. I know from personal experience that drugs without therapy are hardly effective. Drugs allow therapy to actually work. And while in some instances drugs alone can be an answer, they still require at least some support.
Almost every one of the people who has committed an atrocious crime with a gun would have benefitted from better medical care. The system is not designed to help us be well, if it designed for fixing. It is utterly reactive, and we are unable to acknowledge that what it needs to be is PROACTIVE.
Reform will not be effective until we take the insurance companies out of the equation. Part of the problem is that these are FOR-PROFIT agencies in control of our health care system, and so long as they are making the rules, they will do all they can to keep the status quo, and their profit-margins up.
Both education and health care are large issues, and while they could be held separate from the gun control issue, I would postulate that they are directly related, and capable of providing an ACTUAL, useful solution to the problem.
So before you scream about gun control, for or against it, consider instead the greater problem at hand. Then, let’s work together to do something about it instead.
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