Why don't people get it?

The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles.
~Mahatma Gandhi ~

I'm so sick to death of all this talk about gun violence and the need for gun control.  I don't understand why so many people just don't get it.  Just because someone owns a gun does NOT mean they are going to use it to kill someone any more than someone eating bacon will have a heart attack and die.  Stupid comparison?  Yeah, well, it's a stupid subject.  Why don't people understand that the problem is not HOW people kill people but the fact that they DO kill people and seemingly, have no conscience about it.  I'm not even going to address the fact that criminals will have guns no matter what laws are in effect.

Have you noticed that when the anti-gun faction began spouting their reasons for supporting gun control, they almost always talk about mass shootings?  Why do they continually ignore the other means by which mass killings occurred?  Bombs and fires have been used time and again.  Now we have a new weapon of mass violence - pressure cookers.  This should be an example to those who oppose guns that if someone wants to kill, they'll find a way to do it.  After the devastation of 9/11, we had to deal with letters contaminated with anthrax being sent to our elected officials in Washington.

There is no denying that there are people in this world who will always use guns to kill other people.  I get it - guns are convenient but so are knives and matches.  Again, why are we more concerned with the how rather than the why?  At what point are we, as a society, going to roll up our sleeves and work on the real problem?

Dr John Johnson, expert on violence in America and professor at the University of Arizona, said "Guns, in and of themselves, cannot be considered a contributing factor regarding violence within the United States."  In his lecture about violence, he said that serial killers are the most feared killers in America.  He also stated that the majority of them do not use guns.  I don't have anything to document that but it seems to me I can't recall many serial killers who used guns.

It would seem to me that gun control advocates are only interested in preventing mass shootings even though they talk about saving just one life.  My guess about that is that the 'one life' they talk about saving are the times someone in a family goes bonkers and kills family members.  Yeah, that happens but, again, it's also happened with knives.  I remember reading something awhile back about a man who wanted to kill himself but didn't want his family burdened with his suicide so he killed them as well.  He used carbon monoxide poisoning to do the deed.

When are the people of this country going to wake up and address the real problem - man's inhumanity against man?  If we can't understand that that's the real problem then there's no reason to expect that things will ever get better.

I'm Guilty

The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.
~Ayn Rand~

I hate guilt.  No, let me correct that - I hate feeling guilty - and Lord knows I feel guilty all the time.  I've learned, though, that feeling guilty isn't the same as actually being guilty.  Sometimes, I think that maybe I confuse feeling guilty with feeling ashamed.

My latest bout with guilt (shame?) was at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week when loved ones gathered to offer a loving and final farwell to my brother.  I wasn't paying attention to what was going on because I was too focused to what I thought was necessary.  I wanted my sister-in-law to have something before the service began (which I later discovered wasn't necessary) and leaned forward to ask her daughter to "give this to your mom".  She said something I didn't quite understand and I thought she was just blowing me off so I leaned toward my sister-in-law and tried to give her what I had typed up for her.  She leaned back and whispered 'not now' - which I figured out was what my neice had said.  When I looked up (and beyond my own nose) I realized that my brother's casket was being removed from the hearse and his family (well, all but me, apparently) were being humble and honoring him as he was carried to his final resting place.  I immediately felt guilty because I know better - and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since.

That same day, after the ceremony/service, I thanked a friend for coming and was told 'anything for you'.  My brain was in overdrive trying to think of a witty comeback but all my mouth could spit out was 'buy me lunch?'  That was just plain embarrassing and had he been able to join us, there's no doubt I'd have felt guilty if he offered to pay.  Open mouth, insert foot is the story of my life.

I feel guilty if I take the last cup of coffee or piece of pie; I feel guilty if I spend money on me instead of someone else; I feel guilty if I do anything that might possibly cause someone else to do without something or have to do something that I've not done.  Some of that, I think, could just be human nature because I know a lot of people who feel the same way.

One thing I do know for sure is that those negative feelings descend upon us like a buzzard on roadkill.  The positive feelings require a bit of effort - at least until we get used to them.  I sure wish it could be the other way around.