One nation, under guns...

[Javaman]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10027905508

(I wrote this back in 2016 and still rings true today...sadly)

One Nation, Under Guns...

This is what we have become, a nation of violence underlined by guns.

There are those in the gun community that will argue with that, but when people in other countries talk about or ask about or reflect upon the U.S., it invariably comes back to violence and guns.

We are a violent nation. that is a fact.

We are the largest exporter of weapons in the world.

When we send "aid" packages to other nations, that's just a catch all phrase for everything we send, including weapons.

Starting since our inception as a nation, we have been involved in one war after another. either it was under the guise of "self defense", "helping others" or "spreading democracy".

Self defense in the monroe doctrine, helping others as in over throwing democratically elected governments, and spreading democracy to other nations at the point of a gun.

And as a result of our over seas proliferation of weapons, the weapons here, for sale to the average person, have become cheap and plentiful.

Death is good business. Violence and it's maintenance is the American way.

As the years have gone by, and the various massacres increase, we have become a type of Roman Republic, lusting for a new and novel way for people to be killed.

No more are the 2 or 3 or 4 people killed big news, it's the huge numbers that get the ratings.

We are into the era of the violence of the snake eating it's tail.

We have the usual daily shooting at work, the weekly "mass" shooting and now we get the monthly or bi-monthy massacre.

And yet how fickle we are.

The San Bernardino massacre hardly still registers on our consciousness.

But were do we say, enough!

Do we draw the line now? or do we watch at the goal posts move, not just down the field, but into another zip code altogether?

Do we sit by our computers weeping or do we turn our anger into action?

I just can't support anyone who advocates or defends violence at the hand of a gun.

And as such, I will be giving my hard earned money and my voice to organizations that work hard for gun control, extensive background checks and find a way to make it massively difficult to obtain a gun legally.

I do not own a gun, but as an American, I am part of what contributes to the violence. I also refuse, as an American to blindly turn away.

I would love to say, we can do better, but sadly it appears we are unable to. This is who we are and it will take those few of us to educate the many.

Because, if there is no change, no movement, no one speaking out, the we are doomed to remain...

One nation, under guns...

[sanatanadharma]

1. Thank you

In truth, silence

[ananda]

2. Hmm... well actually, one could argue that we've always been this way.

One could argue that we've always been violent and genocidal ... even against each other -- with the Civil War as a harbinger of where we are today.

[usonian]

3. Guns are the new God.

A while back, God was replaced by "The Market" as economists proclaimed.

This is documented in "The Enchantments of Mammon" by Eugene McCarraher.

Relentless "Evangelism" by the New Religious Association (NRA) has enthroned a new God in America

The Enchantments of Ammo.

[2naSalit]

4. K&R