Guns and the Right-Wing


Yet another school shooting. Yet another round of arguing. Yet another deluge of disingenuous nonsense from the right-wing, who are not actually interested in solutions.

Yet more arguments that reveal that what the right-wing really want is more dead children.

Strong claim, I know. Two ideas have been put forward as the core of this issue, and the right-wing’s response to these will simply lead to the shootings continuing. I’ll explain.

1. The availability of guns is what allows these shootings to occur

In no other country are guns anywhere near as available as they are in the USA. In no other country do shootings occur at the same rate as the USA. This (very simple and undeniable) correlation leads directly to an obvious solution. A solution that has been chosen in other countries (Australia, the UK), and resulted in an immediate decline in shootings.

Reduce the availability of guns in the USA.

The right-wing denies that this is a solution, or that it has any relationship to the problem at hand. That there are many “responsible” gun owners, and it’s wrong to “punish” them for the transgressions of a few. (That there are many responsible drug users out there doesn’t seem to matter to them, but lets ignore that hypocrisy for now)

2. A lack of mental health resources is what allows these shootings to occur

For the moment, let’s pretend this is the central cause. That, for some reason, the USA alone has generates vast quantities of a highly specific mental illness that causes those afflicted by it to go commit a mass shooting. Even though mental illness, in general, occurs in about the same rates in the USA as it does everywhere else, there’s something special (i.e. broken) about the USA that results in these individuals murdering multiple people.

This idea entails several conclusions.

  1. There’s something broken, systemically, in the USA that causes people to do this.
  2. As an illness, the Centre for Disease Control should be studying this.
  3. Simply to avoid mass shootings, mental health resources should be provided universally.

Americans, in general, simply won’t acknowledge 1, so addressing any kind of ideological issue as a driving factor here is out.

The right-wing has banned the CDC from studying gun violence. Seriously.

The right-wing is completely set against any kind of universal healthcare, regardless of the number of lives that would save.

Including the restriction of guns, that’s 4 possible solutions to the mass murder of children that are on the table. The right-wing has refused to try any of them. Therefore, nothing changes. Therefore, the mass murder of children continues.

Therefore, the right-wing is pro-dead-children, as illuminated by their choices. Their words are meaningless, because we all know that actions (or inaction in this case) speak louder than words.

If you consider yourself to be a member of the right-wing, and you take offence to this: bummer. This isn’t about your feelings, this is about dead children.

If you really feel that you don’t want any more dead children: pick one of the above solutions and start discussing it with your representatives at the state and national level.

If you don’t, then your preference, as revealed by your actions, is for more dead children. The decision is entirely yours.

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