(ThyBlackMan.com) Another summer in America and another mass shooting has occurred. The are no bright points to this besides there wasn’t a school shooting since school wasn’t open across the country yet and the loss of life wasn’t greater. People died in the El Paso and Dayton shootings over the weekend of 8/3 and 8/4. The thing is, we’re already going through the motions of a mass shooting in America.
Shock From Mass Shootings
First there’s the shock this could even happen…in the only country where guns are just readily accessible even with a light layer of regulation. While the initial shock hits hard when you hear what happened it’s never really that hard to see how this could happen. The shooter is usually the same kind of suspect each time without fail.
There’s this weird mixture of shock and expectancy that this could happen in America when there has a been a slow crawl in these events from the 1949 Camden Shootings or the 1966 Texas Tower Shootings to it steamrolling in the 1970s. These shootings are really nothing new and we’ve honestly come to expect them but it still hits hard when it happens because it shouldn’t or where it happens. What were the victims doing when this happened? Everyday things in everyday places like the rest of us.
The Blame Game
As the days went on, you heard a number of causes and reasons for the shootings. Too many guns, which makes sense. Regulations aren’t strict enough is another. They’re pretty strict but enforcement of those regulations could be better. Smart guns should be pushed. This is one I actually like for a number of reasons but when a shooting happens, it’s never the time to bring it up.
“Guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people!” Alright, true in most cases. Sometimes people are injured or killed via guns by their dogs. I have to admit, if that happens to you, just turn your guns in and burn your permit. A dog shot you with your gun.
A permit is given with the understanding that we’ll adhere to gun safety laws. All of them, not just the convenient ones. A dog might seem like an unexpected variable to the safety laws but the ball was dropped somewhere to get to the point of being shot by a dog. A gun isn’t something you can be flexible with the stringency of the laws or the adherence to them.
Blame on Games
One of the reasons I like and hate at the same time when it comes to avoiding responsibility for year-round gun violence is video games. Like clockwork, we get the blame being laid at the feet of video games and other media for being too violent. As if we don’t root for superheroes—who are essentially vigilantes—in those blockbuster films. Or back in the 1980s and early 90s when Death Wish was a popular franchise? Violence sells in America. That’s a fact.
But then our President targets video games. Of all things—video games. Something part of the younger section of his supporters enjoy. Basically, the thought is violent video games are a catalyst for making people violent and making them want to shoot up a store and whatnot.
Now, him speaking and emboldening racists over the last few years is one of the biggest factors. There’s also a generation of mostly straight white males who can’t function in a relationship or even get in one and blame women for not accepting them as they are. A few involuntarily celibate folks get frustrated and it could escalate. Most of the time it doesn’t but there’s always that concern after the 2014 Isla Vista Shootings.
No, a quick reason that marks can get behind is needed. This was really a reason pulled out of President Trump’s a**. Or rather whichever staff member wrote it down’s a** because this slipshod finger pointing. If you’re not going to take responsibility for your role in things escalating at least come with a well cultivated bullsh**.
Choose Your Cheerleaders For Your Point
On top of that, make sure you have people who can back your point. Don’t have the Republican leaders come out and run with Japan not having mass murders because they don’t have video games or violent video games. Japan. A country whose video game industry saved our home gaming industry after we ruined it in the 1980s. Then once they did that, they just banned video games for the next 30 plus years.
Sounds canonical. It comes off as factual. Oh, Japan has a 60-year old firearms and swords law that has seen gun ownership decline since 2011 for most gun types and purposes. But never mind that, having gun deaths in the single digits some years in this decade while the U.S has them in the quintuple digits. Ultimately, this isn’t about how impotent our gun laws are because we’re too far gone to actually follow Japan’s route. That is something we should’ve done decades ago.
This is about laying blame where blame should be laid. It’s not with video games or films or music. The government said that stuff is bad and requested everyone use their rating systems. All industries did. They’ve done the extent of their responsibility.
Parents and the government need to get their sh** together. The government needs to come up with something that truly works for Americans when it comes to firearms because many are with it on stricter control if it means fewer mass murders but one of our parties have to answer to a specific lobby. If they don’t get that support, they’re in trouble come election time.
As for parents, there’s this weird transition from being helicopter parents when they’re younger, spoiling to the point that they have a ton of freedom when their older, and not being entirely sure what their life is like at school or even at home. Pick one or the other. Personally, I’d prefer parents be all in their kids’ business if it means no more “This isn’t like Joshua. He was a good kid so I don’t know where this came from!” Enough of that.
We’ve gotten to the point where “he had a mental health issue” are both out of gas. A number of these shooters have mental health issues but let’s be serious here. At the minimum we need to be doing more than giving “thoughts and prayers” and thinking that will work when these one or two mass shootings a season.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.
