Guns are seriously misunderstood inanimate objects. On one side, we see people fighting to get them banned, accusing them of encouraging violence. “We need stricter gun laws!” they say.

On the other, we have people such as my family or the lovable NRA that demand everyone should be able to own and shoot whatever gun they want, whenever they please.

Sadly, I believe both sides are actually fighting the wrong battle.

What we should really be addressing is the cultural identity of our nation, where we have many people killing each other with whatever weapon is most convenient.

I would posit that it is not a gun’s fault that people die. If and when a person decides they are going to kill someone else, it is extremely difficult to stop that person before they commit murder, after all, precognition does not happen.

Even if we were to ban guns in America today, people would simply switch to another method; strangulation, poison, stabbing, vehicular destruction, or whatever meets one’s fancy.

My point is that guns are not responsible for people killing each other. No, in fact I am sure that people would beat each other with rocks if that were the only available tool. Instead our cultural paradigm is what is to blame.

I cannot remember the last time we went a month without hearing about a killer shooting multiple people. From that horrible night in Aurora at the movie theater to the Newton shooting or the guy who killed his mother over what to watch on television; killings are out of control.

What’s more, the first two examples above involved killers that essentially had no relationship with victims. They were seemingly killings just for the act of doing so and to go out with a “bang”.
This is what can be identified as a cultural problem. These people have become convinced that there is absolutely no good in their life — and there never will be — so they might as well take as many people with them when they go.

Perhaps these people think they will be immortalized by doing what they do, and in a way they are correct. The media descends on the scene like a pack of hyenas and the story of everyone involved and everyone that knows those involved immediately becomes a national sensation.
Furthermore, our society’s love of violence and sheer amount of how much we immerse ourselves in it is a bit unsettling.

I know so many people that really enjoy seeing two men (or women) beat the living crap out of each other inside an octagonal arena. And it seems that the competitors love to hurt each other just for the sake of doing so.

Now, I love sports, but watching two bulked up people attempt to maim each other in the best way possible is just the modern incarnation of gladiatorial battles. Humanity’s insatiable thirst for violence is nauseating.

Now there are also the usual rhetoric points like violent video games or how people just do not get enough love from their parents or whatever. But the truth is violence in America is everyone’s problem and a violent person is more often times a product of his or her upbringing than of a medical predisposition towards external hurt.

From the President right down the newborn child, no one is separate from a man with a killer’s mind.

Solutions to quelling the murdering urges of different people will not be easy to come by. It would take a national paradigm shift akin to the Civil Rights Movement to get the killings under control.

Picking out guns is not the right course of action for us to be taking. Yes, gun control is great, but a person armed with the motive to do harm is what the true danger is.

In short, no matter what laws are made against people’s activities or people’s purchases, the only way to make the world a safer and better place to live is we must change people’s hearts.

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