Guns and Mass Shootings

Regarding last week's massacre in Aurora, CO:

I don't think guns--more or less--are the issue. OK, I have some difficulties with automatic weapons and those with sizable magazines, but.... What has sparked me the past few months is the number of deaths reported in the newspapers from gunfire. In Detroit and its environs, deaths by guns seems epidemic. It seems not a single day passes when at least one gun-death isn't reported--usually there are more. In fact, as I tell my students, such deaths have become so commonplace, dare I say "accepted?" that they don't even rate headline or front page news. This AM, back on page 11, a one-inch story told of a shooting death on Detroit's West Side, not too far from where I was raised. Where has our sense of humanity disappeared? Why do so many, that is the shooters, attach so little value to others' lives? It's not uncommon in instances of "road rage" to have some guy pull out a gun and use it on someone who didn't use a turn signal or some other driving gaffe. What about the gangs, who to retaliate or mark their "turf," spray houses with bullets, with no regard as to the occupants? In March here, just such an occasion saw a 9-month old boy killed. (The "outrage" lasted about three days. Newspapers stopped reporting. Sharpton and Jackson were notably absent, but, of course, found time to get to Fla for the Trayvon Martin deal.) Last week, about a mile from my late in-laws' and a block over from my brother-in-law (about 5 blocks east of my childhood home), four guys broke into a house. When the owner appeared to apparently thwart the robbery, he was just shot, that's all, just shot. At their arraignment, none of the perpetrators displayed any emotion, no remorse, not even fear of being convicted. What do we do when there's no fear, when there's no value to a human life (except, I suppose, the murderers' own lives?)? Does this, our changing/lack of values, also then change the equation with gun possession? Over the past few decades, American society has certainly had a significant shift in mindset, values, or whatever we choose to call it. I don't see the change as anything positive.

Similarly, with the same issue, think about video games, television, movies, and music, particularly "gangsta rap."  Can anyone argue they are much, much more violent that 50 or 60 years ago.  People are quick to say "Ban guns! (or a certain type of gun)."  They aren't quite so quick to say anything about video games, television, movies, and music.  Yet, don't these things have an important effect on psyches, esp those who might be prone to violence?  Doesn't mass advertising work, influencing how people act?  Of course it does.  There's a reason companies spend so much money on advertising on the boob tube.  Ads affect people's behavior, leading them to buy more.  I don't think anyone would argue otherwise.  Then, can't the video games, television, movies, and music similarly affect people's behavior?  It sure seems they could.

Consider the so-called "sexual revolution" of the '60s and '70s, when sexual relations lost their taboos.  I'm not arguing there wasn't sex outside of marriage, only that there was far less of it before this "revolution."  Stigmas that served, at least in part, to discourage sex outside of marriage were removed.  They were pooh-poohed as "old-fashioned" and getting rid of them was "liberating."  Once the taboos were lifted, Hollywood changed tacks.  Movie producers found that sex, open sex, on the screen sold and sold big!  After all, any sex (outside of things such as rape, incest, pedophilia) was permissible.  We were "consenting adults."  The message was clear and was heard by more than those "adults."  I would hope nobody would argue that this revolution has been a good thing, "liberation" notwithstanding.  To dissuade any such thoughts, think of teen-age pregnancies, think of fatherless families.  Toss in the rate of poverty, its skyrocketing, among those pregnant teens, fatherless families.  And the message was carried, loud and clear, by the media.

In addition to guns, perhaps it's time to examine other parts of our society.  That is, perhaps it's time if we are really serious.