For way too long it’s been an accepted “fact” that there’s such a thing as “gun violence” as though the tools used in the crime of murder were the defining factor of criminal homicide. Worse, it assumes that the tool itself were the cause of the crime.
The term “Knife violence” may sound ridiculous, because it is. Let’s examine why.
Baseball bats, hands and feet, ropes and knives as weapons have, in the popular vernacular, been considered to be incidental aberrations, discountable; those must be much more pleasant ways to experience one’s murder.
“Yep, he was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Thank gawd he wasn’t shot.” “Strangled for 4 minutes with a piano wire.” What a lucky break! “Bled out for three hours in an alley from stab wounds.” Lucky stiff.
And for way too long, I’ve ridiculed the notion of “gun violence” for that very reason. This position has not won over a lot of support from my fellow Democrats. (as in, any whatsoever). Popularity has not been my goal, thankfully.
Among the litmus tests for membership in the “liberal” culture, one must automatically attribute every unlawful death by firearm to the weapon itself.
Why’s that? Because by the gospel of liberal mindset, every human possesses an inherent goodness which must be corrupted and overcome by an evil outside force. And the only worthy culprit must be, has to be, irrefutably is: the guns.
But a look at the FBI stats from the most recent reports reveals that knives were used in more than three times as many murders as all rifles, including -the horror-of-all-horrors, -scourge of all scourges, the Assault Rifle!!!!
By the “gun violence” rhetoric, there could be no homicides even possible until the time guns were invented.
Up until that invention, murder would have been merely accidental. Then, hallelujah, gun violence was born, and personal guilt alleviated. Our savior-from responsibility and freewill, the firearm. Wut?
The truth is that it’s much easier and cheaper to blame an inanimate object than it is to blame malfunctioning humans then try to cure the root cause: mentally broken biological robots, mainly hoomans. Especially young males. Especially in America.
Postscript:
I have to add this discussion with Scott Galloway and Rick Wilson, as they discuss the crisis of young men at the root of this problem in a much better way than I could, it’s timely and exactly on point.
