Men with Guns

The killings at Virginia Tech occupy all the news. What happened, who is to blame… should the university “shut down” sooner? What kind of strong police response would have helped? What have we learned?
In the midst of all this - grief, unmitigated grief of parents, family, friends. And fear.
And at the root of all this is the influence of our gun culture. And by “gun culture” I don’t just mean 2nd Amendment rights. I mean the culture where violence is a right and a response.
Some of you know I am a “Law and Order” addict. And I watch a lot of re-runs on USA network, where I get to see way too many ads for World Wrestling Entertainment bouts. This so-called “entertainment” promotes violence, revenge and the settling of differences by throwing one another about.
Now, I watch and enjoy plays and films where violence and battle scenes are part of the story. And I understand this “wrestling” is all show. As a child I watched (secretly - my mother would have had a fit) those old wrestling programs with Bruno Sammartino and Gorgeous George. But that was so fake, and so silly. And I don’t see this WWE wrestling as the same as Lucha Libre.
This is different. This “raw” wrestling, with our without “the Donald”, is brutal even as it is theatrical. And the screaming fans - portrayed as ordinary guys - yelling, veins bulging.
It’s a culture of violence that allows the disinherited, the deranged, the disappointed to think that the only way to settle themselves or their disputes is to take it out on someone else, not with fists but with guns, semi-automatic weapons, rifles. And then take it out on themselves.
Whether it is a murder-suicide in a suburban tract house or urban apartment, or a mass slaying in a school or business, it is too much. Enough. Enough. We are so far beyond any “debate” about gun-owners’ rights and freedoms.
This is no easy thing. I listened to the voice of a soldier in Iraq on television last night. He spoke about the conflicting message of the religious injunction against murder “thou shalt not kill” and the order to shoot that must be obeyed. How he prayed the man in his sites would stop running away so that he did not have to kill him. But the man ran, in fear perhaps, and the soldier “had” to shoot him.
How can we ordinary citizens find a way to end this country, and our society’s addiction to violence and guns? What have we learned? Law and order, indeed!