Like lambs to the slaughter. Why do these types of mass shootings only occur in the US?
It has nothing to do with mental illness, nor the derangement of the 'lone gunman' - it is a problem of guns and our societies inability to legislate against them. It's not rocket science!
Today was a day like any other, we woke up and saw the sun rise. Spinning on its own axis at 1600 Km/hr, this rock we call home rotated. Earth, the Goldilocks planet, the only planet in our solar system capable of sustaining life. DNA multiplying, mutating, finding, adapting, a life-giving molecule moving towards ever more stable forms, forms adept, capable of surviving in the changing conditions on this planet. Changes that are happening because of direct actions of one species out of nine million plant and animal species that call this place home.
We are polluting, overindulging, massacring the life-sustaining capabilities of this rock. The only place for 300 billion kilometres that could house these nine million species. Every day. We turn on lights, drive our cars, power up useless devices that literally suck the very energy out of the core of our planet and darken our skies, causing the temperatures on the planet to rise to unsustainable levels.
Climate change will eventually wipe out not only our own species but is already wiping out 2000 species every 365 days, or the time it takes for our planet to orbit the sun. That very sphere at the centre of this system which holds enough energy to power our species’ energy needs. And all we need to harness this energy is a strip of solar panels not wider than 8km, hovering in near orbit around our planet. Instead of working together as a collective to ensure this life saving venture for our future, the politicians on this rock made of earth and water spend their time waging wars, promoting wealth generation, legislating over the bodies of half of our species, putting innocent people behind bars for choices they make about what substances they ingest. But when it comes to climate change, all they can do is talk.
The real existential threat
And then 18 children get shot to death in a little town in Texas.
Democrats talk about gun laws.
Republicans talk about mental health.
And nothing gets done.
That little sub-orbital solar panel in outer space that could power humanity’s energy consumption ad infinitum is not science fiction. It is a very real solution to what we need to do collectively as a species, to stave off irreversible temperature rises on the planet. It is not even that expensive (as if cost was ever an issue) - completely within the realms of our planet’s capability.
But preventing human beings killing children with a gun they bought at a gas station seems impossible. Why?
It has nothing to do with mental health. It has to do with guns. And more importantly, accessibility to guns.
In New Zealand, our mental health problems per capita are the same as in the United States. One in five people will suffer mental health crises at some point in their life times. Yet in New Zealand, a person suffering from mental health problems is TEN times more likely to end their own life than in the US. And one million times less likely to end another person’s life with a gun.
The US Constitution is a relic
So this has nothing to do with mental illness. It has to do with a country who has as its second amendment the right for a citizen to own a gun. Written at a time when women weren’t allowed to vote or even own a bank account, at a time when slavery was not only endorsed, but encouraged, this law amendment became the most holy statute in a constitution rife with hypocrisies and outdated laws. Members of the American right call it sacrilege to mess with the constitution, especially the second amendment. “This is the oldest constitution on the planet,” they hark often forgetting that the US is one of the newest countries on the planet.
This is the same constitution that still mentions slavery.
As per the 1st and 4th clauses in Article I, Section 9:
“The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.”
Yes they don’t mention slavery per se, but that is exactly what the framers of this constitution were inferring with this passage. The exact amount of tax that should be imposed on slave owners for importing other humans to do labour for them.
If the Americans have left this passage in this sacred document, then it is quite easy to understand why the second amendment, the right to bear arms one, has never been touched. If the capitol riots last year taught us anything, it is that Americans are not emancipated enough to host the “greatest democracy” on the planet, nor be allowed to own guns.
It is self-evident that wars will not cease, nor poverty struck down, or children slaughtered until the US wakes up from this self-imposed freedom and liberator dream that it erroneously believes separates them from the rest of the world.
“The only thing stopping a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
There is no such thing as a good guy with a gun. I wanted to share a story here. Of my first experience with a firearm. It came in the German military, when I was a young adolescent completing the archaic, compulsory military service. Even though I was enlisted as a medical aid in the air force, parlayed without a weapon on the imaginary battlefield, we still had to show proficiency on the firing range.
That morning we got up early, before the sun came up, around 4am. Went on a long run around the forest that surrounded our barracks and ended up collecting our weapons from a secured shed on the outskirts of this forest. The weapons were not loaded, we were told to congregate at the firing range at around 7am. A long line of teenage boys standing and idling about, gun in hand, whilst listening to the sergeant give the safety briefing. After that we all watched each other walk up to the firing spot whilst receiving the ammunition to load our guns. One by one, we watched as our peers shot at the target, some with minimum recoil, others falling over after pulling the trigger due to the immense power of these weapons. When it was my turn and my name got called, I was very nervous bordering on scared. I looked at the man giving me the bullets who sensed my trepidation, “don’t worry you’ll love it” he whispered to me as I walked up to take my first shot.
With my knees shaking uncontrollably, I tried to aim and follow the instructions, keep your arm slightly bent, breathe out before you aim, squeeze, don't pull the trigger, and then bang. The loud noise shocked me. The first thing I looked for after my shot had gone off was to make sure that I hadn’t hit one of the birds perched high atop a birch tree in the distance. Relieved that I hadn’t hit the birds who staunchly held their place, I felt a rush of exhilaration go through my body. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Almost frothing at the mouth I steadied myself for my second shot. Bang! Again another avalanche of endorphins coursing through my body and brain, what a rush. The instructor had been right, I did love this?!
After finishing my round, I walked back to the other boys. An immense feeling of guilt rushed through me. What on Earth was that feeling? Why did it make me feel so good?
Power.
That one human being should have this much power over life and death at the squeeze of a trigger by your index finger was beyond me. As a proud pacifist, I felt ashamed. Like I had betrayed myself. It reminded me of how I felt sometimes after masturbating, just after climaxing. How stupid and pathetic I was for doing this. It happens to the best of us.
That night I made a promise to myself, never to touch a gun again. It was too much power for one individual to deal with. A human brain is not capable of acting responsibly with this sort of energy at their disposal. It was unnatural, the repercussion of the act of shooting itself, inhumane.
The system is at fault, not the individual
And now here I sit on the other side of the planet contemplating another senseless school shooting in the US. Did the shooter feel that same other worldly rush of endorphins with this weapon? Did it temporarily make him feel like he was the most powerful man on Earth, like it had done with me? What was he thinking when he set aim on an innocent 10 year old and squeezed that trigger? Was he insane? Had he lost his mind? Or was his brain intoxicated with the puissant potential of a tool that should never have been created in the first place?
Did the very existence of a concept of a gun commit this shooting? Like putting a magic wand into the hand of a human whose spine had been bent by society’s inevitable pathologies, poverty, racism, inequality. Had the system itself committed this act of violence against these helpless children?
There simply is no such thing as a “good guy” with a gun. The very phrase itself is an oxymoron.
The US needs to confiscate not just some guns, but ALL of them. There is no need for guns to exist on this planet. None. Zilch. Nada.
Hunting? People do it for sport not survival, so no.
Protection? When there are no guns what are you protecting yourself against, so again, no.
I wage that the only reason guns exist is because the very act of shooting is addictive. Just like alcohol and guns. It feels good to shoot. Like nothing you have ever felt before.
And for that reason alone we need to ban them. Wholesale.
When the Christchurch shooting happened, the New Zealand government sat down in parliament banning the ownership of automatic weapons in this country. We are far from perfect as a lot of guns do still exist but not in the magnitude that they exist in the US, not even close. There are an estimated 1 million guns in NZ, in a population of 5 million. There are 400 million guns in the US, for a population of 325 million.
Do the math. Even for NZ these numbers, much like our collective global energy consumption, are completely unsustainable.
So why do these types of school shootings only occur in the US?
Accessibility. Nothing else. A study in 2019 revealed that one in eighteen teenagers brings a gun to school in the US.
I mean, are you kidding me?
Screw guns, like seriously. Melt them all and then use the molten steel to construct rockets that can hoist that tiny little 8 by 8 square kilometre solar panel into Earth’s near orbit to solve the climate crisis.
Now wouldn’t that be a happy ending?
When are we going to do something to earn the name Homo sapiens? Wise ape.
I know I promised I would follow up my last article with one focusing on the positive things happening on the planet and I promise you this article is evolving, but this shooting today overwhelmed me. I felt the need to outline my experience and also what I believe to be the solution. Guns need to be outlawed. Banned from civil society. Because their mere existence negates the word ‘civil’ from any discourse of society, too great their impact is on the ability of our feeble nervous system to act rationally.
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Like lambs to the slaughter. Why do these types of mass shootings only occur in the US?
Just had a debate at work, where I suggested what you said "that all guns be banned". I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the argument "but what about for hunting" ... I tried to point out that surely the fun of the sport of hunting does not make it worth the harms..... to no avail. Disappointing. I completely agree with you.
So articulate - thank you