by
Voyle A. Glover
We're all horrified over the violence we've seen from children and we focused immediately on their weapons of choice: guns. But cars kill more teens than guns. Alcohol kills more teens than guns. Disease kills more teens than guns. I see no public outrage being made against the car manufacturers. I do not hear the media condemning Ford or Chrysler. Why not? Well, it's because, in part, that the argument which they make against guns is seen, when used with cars, to be a fallacy, to be illogical. In the law, there's a doctrine known as argument ad absurdum. It is where you take a proposition and test it by following it to a conclusion which is shown to be absurd, which is a means of testing an argument. So it is with the argument made by those who want to ban the ownership of guns. If you substitute a weapon far more deadlier than the gun and which has killed more Americans than any weapon made, and you make the same statements and conclusions about that weapon that is being made about guns, here is how it sounds:
- Cars should be banned.
- Cars should have safety locks to prevent teens and children from using them.
- Cars that are faster or smaller should be banned completely.
- Cars should not be shown in movies.
- Cars should not be advertised.
- Cars should not be used in sporting events (such as race car events).
I have to wonder what the talking heads of tv "wonderland" would say if some students had chosen a car bomb to kill and instead of killing a few, had killed hundreds, as was done to our marines in Beirut and as was done to our citizens in the Oklahoma federal building. Think about it for a moment. Suppose there were three schools hit that way in a short span of time. What would the "guns are evil" people say? How would the Rosies of the world look at it? It should, if we follow their logic, sound like this:
Media (hereafter known as "Rosie Glasses"): "For an in-depth look at the issue, we're going to be talking with the most learned man in the universe, someone who has studied cars all his life and who knows about the deadly mix of cars and explosives." Turning to the guest, she adds, "What's your take on this rash of unprecedented car bombings? Mr. I-Understand-These-Things-and-will-explain-it-to-you-Person?"
"Thank you Rosie. Just call me Neville." He shuffles some papers, looked at Rosie's glasses for a long moment, then with serious effort, concern wiped itself across his face and he said, with an authoritative ring to his voice: "Today, for the third time, we've been visited with a school horror. Another automobile, this time a used Ford Packard which was made with heavier metal and this one filled with explosives, was driven into the school at a high rate of speed and exploded, killing three hundred children, mostly teens, and teachers."
Turning to Rosie's glasses, he says: "If we don't get these cars off the roads and keep them out of the hands of these kids, we're going to have more of these kinds of tragedies."
Rosies adjusts her glasses and says seriously: "Is there some way we can lock them to where they can't be operated by these kids?"
The Neville person who-knows-it-all-without-a-political-agenda glows as he practically shouts: "Certainly! Of course, Rosie! Your incisive, emotionalized intellect has keyed right in on the answer! And the Republicans are howling over the proposal, calling it ridiculous. But wait until it's their kids and then they'll howl all the way to the grave site, wishing they'd banned all cars forever! They won't be calling for locks. They'd be for total bans on all such weapons. I'm telling you, we have to act and we have to do it now. If the Republicans want to be voted out of office for opposing car bans, especially older ones with heavy metals that can rip holes in little children, then they are going to have to live with their choice. But as one who has studied this issue for decades, I'm telling you that this weapon is so deadly that we have to act."
Rosie pushed her glasses back up on her slippery nose, apparently wanting to keep her view of the rose colored cue-card, which glasses promptly slid back down. She wagged her head Mortimer-like, then added, "Neville, that's so true. And when you load a car with bullets, uh, I mean, explosives, well, it's just a catastrophe that is magnified."
Well, you get the idea, I'm sure. Logic has little to do with the gun debate. The Rosies of the world are wearing the wrong colored glasses, though I suspect that glasses are not the real defect.
How long will it take America to realize that this about responsibility and training?
- A responsible parent does not leave guns out but locks them up (as advocated by the NRA).
- A responsible parent doesn't permit their young children to watch movies (or wrestling) where violence is raised to an art form and death and mayhem becomes an ordinary event to be cheered.
- A responsible parent trains their children in things such as morality (which goes far beyond sex).
- A responsible parent teaches their children responsibility (part of which is being responsible for one's actions).
- A responsible parent teaches their children about the sanctity of life.
- A responsible parent teaches their children about dealing with problems.
- A responsible parent teaches their children about the need to be obedient to the laws of the land.
- A responsible parent will do whatever is necessary to insure their children are raised to be responsible citizens.
You see, part of the problem in America is the failure of parents to teach their children responsibility. And those children have grown up irresponsible and have raised children who are irresponsible. They know nothing about discipline. They know nothing of self discipline. They are true misfits in society and society rejects them. So, they react according to the only real model they've ever spent time learning: The Model of Violence. They've absorbed into their minds the thousands of hours of horror games, killing, killing, killing with abandon; and they've absorbed into their psyche the razor-like cuts across their moral boundaries made by the horror movies they were permitted (even encouraged) to watch; and now they're reacting to rejection by adopting the only roles they've ever really played, i.e., violent, kill-your-enemies roles from television, from video games and from the movies.And we're surprised?
I'm surprised, but only at the colossal stupidity of a nation too taken with the talking heads of "wonder-world" to see through the double-speak and the educated ignorance being espoused by so many.
It isn't the guns, stupid. (And it isn't the economy.) And it isn't the NRA. And Heston and Selleck aren't the problem. (Actually, the NRA is part of the solution. They teach responsibility.)
It's the Parents and it's that industry we collectively call "Hollywood," but I call it the "Horror Woods"!
When Hollywood stops advertising their messages of murder for hours at a time directly into the minds of children, we won't see kids going out and loading their cars with...oops, loading guns with bullets for their missions of death.
The End
You might appreciate reading Predators: Home Made Monsters
