BLAME WHERE BLAME IS DUE

M1 Garand

      I am at awe at the simplistic nature of the gun debate in America today.  To listen to the pundits one would think that the semi-automatic rifle was a new invention.  In fact, semi-automatic rifles and carbines have been with us for years, and they have been prevalent in our culture throughout my life.  Following war it was not uncommon for soldiers to return home with not only semi-automatic but fully-automatic weapons as a part of the spoils of war.  World War II brought us a host of semi and full- auto weapons which were either brought home from the front or released for civilian sale by the government.  The M1 Garand, in my opinion the best battle rifle ever developed, was released to civilian sales following the war.  Along with it came the M1 Carbine, the Thompson M 1921 and later the M14, all in semi-automatic versions provided to the public.   It wasn’t until the 1960s that the AR15 began to show up in the public domain.  It is now the whipping post of those who want to make an inanimate object take the brunt of the blame for societal decline.  To infer that a piece of metal and plastic is the cause of our recent tragedies is the height of naivety.  

      As a kid growing up I was surrounded by men who owned semi-automatic rifles, many more powerful than the AR15.  They leaned against the walls in closets, hung in pickup trucks and slept under beds in many homes.  Even though they were readily available and possessed by many, I don’t remember a single mass shooting in my youth.  I am sure that there may have been some, but they were rare in my younger days.  We had the gun, we had the man and we had life’s problems, but we didn’t see the violence manifested in our cities back then.  So what has changed?

M1 Carbine

      In my youth I was privy to acts of violence in the media.  I saw battles and gunfights depicted on the screen, but as I look at the movies, TV and entertainment of our modern day I see great differences.  Even though I was allowed to watch the violence depicted on the screen in my early years, I was taught that violence was a last resort to defend innocent life.  That value was reinforced in most of the movies and TV shows I watched.  Violence was often the tool of the villain.  Violent men were portrayed as evil and good men only used violence to stop evil, and violence was seldom graphic.  

      In today’s media villains are often shown to be almost heroic in nature.  They taunt those who pursue them and are portrayed as smarter, faster and somehow better than those who oppose their evil. The level of violence shown in today’s movies and on TV far surpasses the violence I was exposed to in my youth.  Yes, in my youth they didn’t have to reload a six shooter, but today’s villains in movie and TV shoot lead at their enemies and innocent victims at a rate that would bankrupt a Rockefeller.  Their pursuers in kind return fire randomly at a level that would leave the Lone Ranger staring in disbelief at their lack of concern for those innocent people in the background.  Many movies have little or no plot.  They begin with gunfire and violence which is carried throughout the movie until the final credits roll.  I find it unique that Hollywood and many of its actors, directors and financiers can openly demonize a chunk of steel while at the same time using it to the extreme to build their bank accounts.  They blame the gun for violence while simultaneously lining their pockets with the blood of innocent victims who fall prey to those small minded gremlins influenced by their violent productions.  It is my opinion that creativity and talent in the industry are dead or near dead.  Drama too often relies on graphic violence and gratuitous sex.  Comedy can’t be funny without sexual innuendo and vulgarity.  The talent in song, dance, and an actual story line are too often missing from today’s productions, and lesser more violent, vulgar remakes speak to the lack of originality in the industry. 

      In our world today our mentally and emotionally challenged and our youth are continuously exposed to influences that drag them down. I am glad that my children grew up with the likes of Danny Kaye to make them laugh, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to show them true talent, and heroes who only used violence to stop evil.  These characters were not from their generation.  They know them because we shared the talented performers of our generation with them by introducing them to good, clean entertainment.  We steered them away from the violent video games where today’s children and adults repeatedly kill in the most violent fashion to gain reward.  They kill victims who explode in a bloody mass when shot by the same guns that the industry insiders portray as the problem. They shoot, beat, run over and kill in multiple ways, hour after hour until their sensitivity and respect for life vanishes. 

      If you want to truly identify the problem you have to look beyond the object used to commit the violence. You have to look to those who would corrupt our society with violence for personal gain.  You have to look at the recent changes in our society that have been spawned by the very people who cry “Gun Control;” the people who for their personal gain have lowered the value of human life.  They are millionaires at the expense of our children, but no one dare challenge them.  It’s too easy to blame a whittled brick of steel wrapped in plastic.  It can’t argue with you. 

      It is a fact, born out throughout history, that when you take weapons from a society those who prey on society will still have weapons, and those who don’t have weapons will suffer at the hands of those who do. All you need do is look to the history of the Nazis, and Socialists governments, and to the south to countries where possession of a firearm is strictly prohibited by the public.  You can look and watch, south of our border, as gangs of heavily armed thugs, who are prohibited from possessing weapons, surround and enter neighborhoods and kidnap and kill at will, with guns.  The solution is not to disarm good people.  It is to restore the sanctity of human life, to recognize that there is good and evil in our world and to support the values that sustain good and confine evil.  In our society today we too often confine good and promote evil.  Until that changes we are doomed to continue to see violence, whether it is committed by frustrated, challenged drones responding to what society, through modern entertainment, has shown to be normal, or by gangs of miscreants who will prey upon us when we are disarmed.  The problem is not an inanimate object.  It is a society driven by money, and greed, no matter the cost; a society that embraces violence, lessens the value of human life and blames a gun for the outcome.