http://www.freep.com/article/201207...-despair-when-our-culture-OKs-assault-weapons
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, KultureKritic.com
Rochelle Riley from the Detroit Free Press wrote an article in which she says that Americans should stop whining about every mass shooting that occurs, especially since we don’t have the collective courage to modify existing gun laws. Riley says that every time a shooting like this happens, American huddle around and cry, ask for prayer and express sadness, but then go right back to the same activities that led to death in the first place.
Quit crying. Stop asking for prayer. We don’t really care. I don’t have to recount the times in our American past that some nut job with a gun has shot dozens of people. But what I can’t figure out is why we watch it, do nothing about it and then cry when it happens again?
Riley then goes on to say that she doesn’t understand why the loss of human life is not nearly as important to people as a “bastardized interpretation of the Second Amendment,” which allows for assault weapons to be sold. The kinds of weapons used by the Colorado Shooter, James Holmes, were not weapons that would be used in hunting. In many cases, they are only used to murder other human beings.
The debate isn’t about the right to bear arms. That right is absolute and constitutional. The debate is about what “arms” means. There is no reason on Earth or in Colorado for anyone not serving in Iraq or Afghanistan to carry a gun that shoots 30 rounds quickly and repeatedly. If you can’t hunt better than that, you need to go play table tennis, damn it!
Riley notes that Holmes used an AR15 assault rifle, where he hit 70 people. Twelve of those people died. AR-15, AK-47s and other weapons are designed primarily for war, not for public use. She says that we’ve taken the right to assault other human beings to the highest levels and have given licenses for death via the distribution of certain kinds of weapons.
And in our culture, we have legitimized the right to assault. So when it happens, we are hypocrites to scream and cry and ask why. Because gun rights trump lives.
The only background check question that matters is: Have you ever shot 60 people at one time? Former mass murderers need not apply. But future ones? All you need is money and a ride to a gun fair or any big-city street corner.
Riley says that both President Obama and Mitt Romney are guilty of expressing sadness over the incident but offering no solutions. She says that no one cares if we are sorry, since we refuse to do anything about it.
As I watched the two presidential candidates dance around the real issue like a Texas two-step — expressing their sorrow, but offering no solutions — I am very resolute when I say to both: Quit it. Who cares whether you’re sorry?
We don’t really care about the problem and don’t plan to do anything to stop the next one.
If we cared, we would do something about the weapons of mass destruction for which there is no excuse. Not the .22 that a young mother might keep by her bed or the .38 that a cop carries off-duty, but assault rifles whose sole reason for being is to kill people quickly.
I have three words for Riley’s article: I-Love-it. Riley provides the kind of tough love that all of America needs to help us understand that it is our own action, or lack thereof, that causes us to get into the same situations over and over again. Riley’s article reminds me of a time when a friend called to tell me that his cousin had been killed by a fellow drug dealer.
“How could this happen? I just asked the Lord why he would take my cousin’s life while he was so young.” He said.
“Because he was a drug dealer, and drug dealers either die or go to prison,” I said. ”The Lord didn’t just randomly decide to pick on him and take is life. His life was taken by the other drug dealer and by his own inability to make good decisions. I hope he understood that fact.”
There’s nothing like a big dose of reality to make you the wet blanket at the party. People seem to only enjoy listening to people who tell them what they want to hear.
In the case of the Colorado shooting, we want to hear that this was a senseless tragedy, that we share the pain of those in Colorado and that this is a time for prayer and reflection. All of that might be true. But if we were to be honest with ourselves, we’d realize that this was a senseless tragedy that could have been easily avoided, that we could have saved all those lives if we’d somehow stopped a lunatic from buying enough deadly weapons to kill everyone on his block and that we should honestly reflect on how stupid the gun laws are in this country.
You don’t put your head inside the mouth of a shark and then act surprised when you end up headless. The fact is that this tragedy was a long time coming, and there are more coming right behind it. So, someone who is alive right now will be dead within the next few years because we are too lazy, weak and myopic to change our gun laws. Now let’s go reflect on that.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of YourBlackWorld.com. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, KultureKritic.com
Rochelle Riley from the Detroit Free Press wrote an article in which she says that Americans should stop whining about every mass shooting that occurs, especially since we don’t have the collective courage to modify existing gun laws. Riley says that every time a shooting like this happens, American huddle around and cry, ask for prayer and express sadness, but then go right back to the same activities that led to death in the first place.
Quit crying. Stop asking for prayer. We don’t really care. I don’t have to recount the times in our American past that some nut job with a gun has shot dozens of people. But what I can’t figure out is why we watch it, do nothing about it and then cry when it happens again?
Riley then goes on to say that she doesn’t understand why the loss of human life is not nearly as important to people as a “bastardized interpretation of the Second Amendment,” which allows for assault weapons to be sold. The kinds of weapons used by the Colorado Shooter, James Holmes, were not weapons that would be used in hunting. In many cases, they are only used to murder other human beings.
The debate isn’t about the right to bear arms. That right is absolute and constitutional. The debate is about what “arms” means. There is no reason on Earth or in Colorado for anyone not serving in Iraq or Afghanistan to carry a gun that shoots 30 rounds quickly and repeatedly. If you can’t hunt better than that, you need to go play table tennis, damn it!
Riley notes that Holmes used an AR15 assault rifle, where he hit 70 people. Twelve of those people died. AR-15, AK-47s and other weapons are designed primarily for war, not for public use. She says that we’ve taken the right to assault other human beings to the highest levels and have given licenses for death via the distribution of certain kinds of weapons.
And in our culture, we have legitimized the right to assault. So when it happens, we are hypocrites to scream and cry and ask why. Because gun rights trump lives.
The only background check question that matters is: Have you ever shot 60 people at one time? Former mass murderers need not apply. But future ones? All you need is money and a ride to a gun fair or any big-city street corner.
Riley says that both President Obama and Mitt Romney are guilty of expressing sadness over the incident but offering no solutions. She says that no one cares if we are sorry, since we refuse to do anything about it.
As I watched the two presidential candidates dance around the real issue like a Texas two-step — expressing their sorrow, but offering no solutions — I am very resolute when I say to both: Quit it. Who cares whether you’re sorry?
We don’t really care about the problem and don’t plan to do anything to stop the next one.
If we cared, we would do something about the weapons of mass destruction for which there is no excuse. Not the .22 that a young mother might keep by her bed or the .38 that a cop carries off-duty, but assault rifles whose sole reason for being is to kill people quickly.
I have three words for Riley’s article: I-Love-it. Riley provides the kind of tough love that all of America needs to help us understand that it is our own action, or lack thereof, that causes us to get into the same situations over and over again. Riley’s article reminds me of a time when a friend called to tell me that his cousin had been killed by a fellow drug dealer.
“How could this happen? I just asked the Lord why he would take my cousin’s life while he was so young.” He said.
“Because he was a drug dealer, and drug dealers either die or go to prison,” I said. ”The Lord didn’t just randomly decide to pick on him and take is life. His life was taken by the other drug dealer and by his own inability to make good decisions. I hope he understood that fact.”
There’s nothing like a big dose of reality to make you the wet blanket at the party. People seem to only enjoy listening to people who tell them what they want to hear.
In the case of the Colorado shooting, we want to hear that this was a senseless tragedy, that we share the pain of those in Colorado and that this is a time for prayer and reflection. All of that might be true. But if we were to be honest with ourselves, we’d realize that this was a senseless tragedy that could have been easily avoided, that we could have saved all those lives if we’d somehow stopped a lunatic from buying enough deadly weapons to kill everyone on his block and that we should honestly reflect on how stupid the gun laws are in this country.
You don’t put your head inside the mouth of a shark and then act surprised when you end up headless. The fact is that this tragedy was a long time coming, and there are more coming right behind it. So, someone who is alive right now will be dead within the next few years because we are too lazy, weak and myopic to change our gun laws. Now let’s go reflect on that.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of YourBlackWorld.com. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
