In scanning the various news channels today I have heard the usual cries for gun laws and gun control in the wake of the Colorado school shooting last week. It seems that so many believe that enacting strict gun laws will stop these attacks from happening yet no one ever seems to point out that we have strict laws against murder yet murders continue to happen including murders at schools. No one seems to answer how more laws will stop these crimes from happening when existing laws have not had an effect.
One thing you hardly ever hear is what I believe is potentially at the heart of the problem. No doubt mental health is a factor but back in the 1950s through the 1970's you just didn't have that problem but we had the availability of guns and fewer gun laws. What I believe also should be looked at, but is not, is the violent video games and the anger rock music. Video games put young players in shooting situations where they kill people but after the game, no harm is done so why not extend that into real life? Much of the hard rock anger music today also fill the youth's minds with words that cheapen life and create angry people.
Lastly, even in our schools and teachings, we cheapen life and make it out to have no significance other than that of an insect scurrying across the floor. We live in a society that protects animals and other forms of life but humans are just looked at as, at times, an inconvenience. Even life in the womb is disposable in many states and the ability to kill the unborn is celebrated. So why do we expect that many of the young should fear to kill another human for there is no higher power to answer to or at least that's what contemporary education teaches. A creator is not even an alternative choice as for theories but is excluded from education in the name of separation of Church and State.
Like the cause, I believe the solutions, whatever they are, are complicated and varied and not just one. So many times today though politicians or some groups gladly point to one thing as the cause as if banning all guns will stop the violence and killing overnight. We are quick to talk about some things but limit our conversations to exclude other factors. Also when you consider the number of deaths caused by drunk driving and alcohol they greatly dwarf those from school shootings but no one seems to care about those either because to speak about those means we speak about alcohol and that's certainly a taboo.
