'How Many Will It Take?'
While crying as we will, and wishing as we must, that human beings will simply stop killing one another, the most that we can actually, and realistically hope for is to keep the murder rate down to a low roar. We have page after page filling books, and volumes of laws, and rules, and regulations ad nauseum enacted to control human actions that might, and often do, adverse...ly affect another humans life, even our own.
Most laws are rather simple common sense laws that on their face are 'simple', but when violated could have serious consequences. For example, 'stop on red', 'school zone-20mph'. Laws that exist for an obvious reason, which some folks view as just a 'suggestion'. Show me someone who has never, ever, ran or 'beat' a traffic signal and I'll show you a person who drives a horse and buggy. Laws are enacted to control the stupidity of humans. Most laws have nothing to do with preventing the untimely death of another person. Most people appreciate the fact that these laws tend to control society to a degree that things run quiet and peacefully, and without too much intrusion of our personal space. Most humans simply like 'law and order' which tends to keep us 'safe', and 'secure' in our daily lives. Of course 'safe and secure' is a relative, and tenuous thing. Most people obey laws, and rules, so we don't have to worry 'too much', at the moment, about being victims of the majority of society. However, laws are only as effective as the people who are willing to obey them, and the willingness of the court system to effectively prosecute the offenders.
So, we might agree that 'most' people are 'law abiding' humans...well, but for some who view laws simply as 'suggestions', and others who pick and choose the laws that suit themselves at the moment, and then those who who feel that 'laws' are made to be broken. Luckily, most of these miscreants are not causing headline grabbing mayhem for the rest of us to deal with. In spite of These folks, our laws seem to be fairly effective in preventing, for the most part, certain crimes from occurring. By certain people. Some of the time. To a certain degree.
One particular law, 'Prohibiting Murder', has been written to death. Try as 'civilized' society will, and legislate as we can, the 'prohibition' against murder just seems to escape us no matter how hard we try to keep a cap on it, and no matter the penalties imposed. It sometimes seems that we humans just murder one another with wild abandon. Murder is a crime that cannot be predicted in advance. Even we, ourselves cannot definitively 'say' that we will 'never' murder another human being. We 'say' we won't, we hope we won't, but even then, we don't really 'know' that we won't.
Most murder/homicides happen on the spur of the moment, most in a 'fit of rage'. Most killers knew their victims previously in some fashion.
According to the FBI:UCR, between 2009-2013, 64,852 Americans became homicide victims. Of that number, 44,077 were victims of Firearms, 31,053 were due to Handguns, 1,633 were due to Rifles, 1,769 were due to Shotguns, 525 due to 'other' firearms, and 1,097 due to 'firearms type not stated'. It's ovious a lot of people shoot and kill a lot of other people with 'firearms'. During that same time frame, 8,378 people were victims of 'knives, or cutting instruments'. And a lot of folks simply hack each other to death with knives. The murder rate by 'Knives etc' declined by about 10% during the mentioned time frame. The weapon of choice of course is the firearm. Hand guns are at the top of the list with Shotguns in 2nd place, yep, even more than Rifles.
As is evident, and although certain laws pertaining to Firearms are in place all across America, the murder rate by use of Firearms remains fairly constant over the years. Higher some years, lower, others.
We can legislate laws to prohibit certain acts but we can't stop people who are so inclined, or in a moment of uncontrolled rage, from violating that law. For a law to be reasonably 'effective' there has to be effective deterrents built in, then effective punishments, but most of all 'people' have to actually 'adhere' to that law, and not kill in the first place. We can write laws ad nauseam, but we can't write a law that 'forces' a person to 'obey' that law. Humans always have, and always will, kill other humans. People who are going to kill, and we don't know who that will be until they've done it, will kill, no matter what. They will kill with whatever weapon they are most familiar with, or whatever is at hand, and most conveneant, at the time. There was a time when humans did not have firearms, and so they killed one another with rocks, and clubs, or their bare hands. After the advent of gunpowder a whole new world of killing opened up. Why go 'hand to hand' when killing from a distance up'ed the survival rate of the shooter, and guarenteed the doom of the shootee. The weapon of choice became the Firearm, clubs became firewood, the rocks became houses.
The NRA says, "firearms don't kill people, people kill people". However, 'Firearms' in the hands of 'people' do kill people, a whole lot of them. The ease of availability, and access to firearms make it a sure bet that in a moment of uncontrolled rage, a firearm will be the 'equalizer' of choice. And yes, it will be said by NRA supporters that people kill one another with weapons other than a firearm. True enough, but nothing compares to the number killed by firearms.
'Rage', 'anger', 'momentary insanity', 'went crazy', 'snapped out', are just a human condition. Human beings are, after all, simply bipedal 'animals'. Just because we can walk up-right, and use cognitive 'reasoning', whenever that might happen, does not mean that the 'Neanderthal' has been totally devolved through evolution from our brains. Humans are simply a higher level of a 'house trained' animal, and not too unlike any other 'domesticated' animal/pet, be it dog, cat, horse, gerbal, or whatever, way back in the dark recesses of all our premordial brains, there resides a Neanderthal vestige of our ancesters just waiting to leap out, and do mayhem. Most humans are able to keep this Neanderthal left-over in check, although some have unwittingly opened that trap door allowing it to take over, and control their 'human' emotions, and lives. Consider any war in history where atrocities, and Genocide, the Nazis in WW2, have occurred. Even current mass killings by radical 'religious' factions. These are 'humans' who at one time in their lives were no doubt as in control of their 'sane' brain, and reasonable as anyone else. And then, something in their brains took over their lives allowing them to become harbingers of death, and destruction. Insane? Out of their minds? Temporarily crazy" Went into rage mode? Maybe. But more likely that for some reason, their Neanderthal gene did not devolve enough for that person to be more 'human', and to be able to control their rage side.
And now, here in 2017, just as in the preceding years, we still have humans slaughtering other humans with guns, bombs, suicide(murder)vests, and other sundry killing machines. And everyone acts surprised, and astounded that such horrible things can still happen in our 'civilized', domesticated world where even women, and children are fair game for murderers.
In 2015 alone, according to the National Safety Council, approx. 38,300 Americans were killed(nearly 7 thousand fewer than by firearms) and 3.3 Million injured as a result of Automobile crashes. "Automobiles' in the hands of people, kill people. And of course now, ISIS terrorists are using stolen trucks as a killing instrument.
There are more Laws, Regulations, and restriction pertaing to the ownership, and operation of a Motor Vehicle than that of an instrument that fires a Lethal projectile, the firearm. Is this even near being logical? And now, driven by an NRA controlled Republican Congress, and with the blessings of President Trump, many State Governments are making the ownership, and the carry of firearms even easier to achieve than ever before in recent history. As if more firearms will actually make Americans 'safer'. States are even allowing students to possess, and carry firearms on College Campuses without needing a permit, and with little or no training in the safe use of firearms. Is this 'logical'? Does this make any sense at all? Are humans making the 'best' of our inherited 'cognitive reasoning' processes? Hmmm..maybe not.
And as long as 'common sense' takes a back seat in the drive to find sensible, and logical solutions to at least reduce 'death by firearm', then the pace of related death, and injury will simply continue to climb, where, 'We shoot, we cry, we reload, and shoot again', will be so commonplace that it will hardly bring a blink, let alone a tear to our eyes.
:/
BuddyBlack
While crying as we will, and wishing as we must, that human beings will simply stop killing one another, the most that we can actually, and realistically hope for is to keep the murder rate down to a low roar. We have page after page filling books, and volumes of laws, and rules, and regulations ad nauseum enacted to control human actions that might, and often do, adverse...ly affect another humans life, even our own.
Most laws are rather simple common sense laws that on their face are 'simple', but when violated could have serious consequences. For example, 'stop on red', 'school zone-20mph'. Laws that exist for an obvious reason, which some folks view as just a 'suggestion'. Show me someone who has never, ever, ran or 'beat' a traffic signal and I'll show you a person who drives a horse and buggy. Laws are enacted to control the stupidity of humans. Most laws have nothing to do with preventing the untimely death of another person. Most people appreciate the fact that these laws tend to control society to a degree that things run quiet and peacefully, and without too much intrusion of our personal space. Most humans simply like 'law and order' which tends to keep us 'safe', and 'secure' in our daily lives. Of course 'safe and secure' is a relative, and tenuous thing. Most people obey laws, and rules, so we don't have to worry 'too much', at the moment, about being victims of the majority of society. However, laws are only as effective as the people who are willing to obey them, and the willingness of the court system to effectively prosecute the offenders.
So, we might agree that 'most' people are 'law abiding' humans...well, but for some who view laws simply as 'suggestions', and others who pick and choose the laws that suit themselves at the moment, and then those who who feel that 'laws' are made to be broken. Luckily, most of these miscreants are not causing headline grabbing mayhem for the rest of us to deal with. In spite of These folks, our laws seem to be fairly effective in preventing, for the most part, certain crimes from occurring. By certain people. Some of the time. To a certain degree.
One particular law, 'Prohibiting Murder', has been written to death. Try as 'civilized' society will, and legislate as we can, the 'prohibition' against murder just seems to escape us no matter how hard we try to keep a cap on it, and no matter the penalties imposed. It sometimes seems that we humans just murder one another with wild abandon. Murder is a crime that cannot be predicted in advance. Even we, ourselves cannot definitively 'say' that we will 'never' murder another human being. We 'say' we won't, we hope we won't, but even then, we don't really 'know' that we won't.
Most murder/homicides happen on the spur of the moment, most in a 'fit of rage'. Most killers knew their victims previously in some fashion.
According to the FBI:UCR, between 2009-2013, 64,852 Americans became homicide victims. Of that number, 44,077 were victims of Firearms, 31,053 were due to Handguns, 1,633 were due to Rifles, 1,769 were due to Shotguns, 525 due to 'other' firearms, and 1,097 due to 'firearms type not stated'. It's ovious a lot of people shoot and kill a lot of other people with 'firearms'. During that same time frame, 8,378 people were victims of 'knives, or cutting instruments'. And a lot of folks simply hack each other to death with knives. The murder rate by 'Knives etc' declined by about 10% during the mentioned time frame. The weapon of choice of course is the firearm. Hand guns are at the top of the list with Shotguns in 2nd place, yep, even more than Rifles.
As is evident, and although certain laws pertaining to Firearms are in place all across America, the murder rate by use of Firearms remains fairly constant over the years. Higher some years, lower, others.
We can legislate laws to prohibit certain acts but we can't stop people who are so inclined, or in a moment of uncontrolled rage, from violating that law. For a law to be reasonably 'effective' there has to be effective deterrents built in, then effective punishments, but most of all 'people' have to actually 'adhere' to that law, and not kill in the first place. We can write laws ad nauseam, but we can't write a law that 'forces' a person to 'obey' that law. Humans always have, and always will, kill other humans. People who are going to kill, and we don't know who that will be until they've done it, will kill, no matter what. They will kill with whatever weapon they are most familiar with, or whatever is at hand, and most conveneant, at the time. There was a time when humans did not have firearms, and so they killed one another with rocks, and clubs, or their bare hands. After the advent of gunpowder a whole new world of killing opened up. Why go 'hand to hand' when killing from a distance up'ed the survival rate of the shooter, and guarenteed the doom of the shootee. The weapon of choice became the Firearm, clubs became firewood, the rocks became houses.
The NRA says, "firearms don't kill people, people kill people". However, 'Firearms' in the hands of 'people' do kill people, a whole lot of them. The ease of availability, and access to firearms make it a sure bet that in a moment of uncontrolled rage, a firearm will be the 'equalizer' of choice. And yes, it will be said by NRA supporters that people kill one another with weapons other than a firearm. True enough, but nothing compares to the number killed by firearms.
'Rage', 'anger', 'momentary insanity', 'went crazy', 'snapped out', are just a human condition. Human beings are, after all, simply bipedal 'animals'. Just because we can walk up-right, and use cognitive 'reasoning', whenever that might happen, does not mean that the 'Neanderthal' has been totally devolved through evolution from our brains. Humans are simply a higher level of a 'house trained' animal, and not too unlike any other 'domesticated' animal/pet, be it dog, cat, horse, gerbal, or whatever, way back in the dark recesses of all our premordial brains, there resides a Neanderthal vestige of our ancesters just waiting to leap out, and do mayhem. Most humans are able to keep this Neanderthal left-over in check, although some have unwittingly opened that trap door allowing it to take over, and control their 'human' emotions, and lives. Consider any war in history where atrocities, and Genocide, the Nazis in WW2, have occurred. Even current mass killings by radical 'religious' factions. These are 'humans' who at one time in their lives were no doubt as in control of their 'sane' brain, and reasonable as anyone else. And then, something in their brains took over their lives allowing them to become harbingers of death, and destruction. Insane? Out of their minds? Temporarily crazy" Went into rage mode? Maybe. But more likely that for some reason, their Neanderthal gene did not devolve enough for that person to be more 'human', and to be able to control their rage side.
And now, here in 2017, just as in the preceding years, we still have humans slaughtering other humans with guns, bombs, suicide(murder)vests, and other sundry killing machines. And everyone acts surprised, and astounded that such horrible things can still happen in our 'civilized', domesticated world where even women, and children are fair game for murderers.
In 2015 alone, according to the National Safety Council, approx. 38,300 Americans were killed(nearly 7 thousand fewer than by firearms) and 3.3 Million injured as a result of Automobile crashes. "Automobiles' in the hands of people, kill people. And of course now, ISIS terrorists are using stolen trucks as a killing instrument.
There are more Laws, Regulations, and restriction pertaing to the ownership, and operation of a Motor Vehicle than that of an instrument that fires a Lethal projectile, the firearm. Is this even near being logical? And now, driven by an NRA controlled Republican Congress, and with the blessings of President Trump, many State Governments are making the ownership, and the carry of firearms even easier to achieve than ever before in recent history. As if more firearms will actually make Americans 'safer'. States are even allowing students to possess, and carry firearms on College Campuses without needing a permit, and with little or no training in the safe use of firearms. Is this 'logical'? Does this make any sense at all? Are humans making the 'best' of our inherited 'cognitive reasoning' processes? Hmmm..maybe not.
And as long as 'common sense' takes a back seat in the drive to find sensible, and logical solutions to at least reduce 'death by firearm', then the pace of related death, and injury will simply continue to climb, where, 'We shoot, we cry, we reload, and shoot again', will be so commonplace that it will hardly bring a blink, let alone a tear to our eyes.
:/BuddyBlack
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