Auri Sacra Fames

Well, here we go again, Colorado. Another shooting on public property in the Denver area. I'll spare everyone the false platitudes, and I won't go on and on about how tragic it all is, because really it just seems disingenuous and trite at this point. The fact is, I'm not doing anything to ensure that another incident like this ever happens in this city I love so much, so I'll skip it.

Here it is, people! Plain and fucking simple. No more debates, nor more petty arguing. As blunt as I can be, this is how I see it. 

We live in a country of choices. In fact we pride ourselves on that. That hallowed freedom of decision. I've struggled with the gun debate for so long because I don't believe in attacking symptoms. I like shooting guns. I get enjoyment out of it. My stepfather owns a small arsenal and has never committed a violent assault. To my knowledge anyway. I truly believe that the problems we're seeing would exist if we all suddenly, collectively agreed on sweeping restrictions or abolition. But that belief, and that "truth", does not automatically absolve me from having to make an inevitable and difficult decision. 

This is a table of the wealth disparity in the United States from the early 1900's on.

And this is a table showing the homicide rates in the United States from the early 1900's on.

Do you see what's happening? Do you notice the continuity in peaks and pits? Is it all a coincidence? Or can we deduce that when the wealth gap widens, violence increases, and vice versa?

I also do not find it coincidental that Switzerland, a country with a pretty healthy gun culture, one that puts firearms into the hands of most young men because they act as the nation's standing militia, also boasts some of the lowest wealth disparities among industrialized nations. 

We cannot continue to choose an unrestricted and unregulated access to wealth and guns, AND also expect to somehow miraculously see a decline in domestic mass violence. It's not in our nature. For years Jane Goodall documented aggression and group violence among chimps when stockpiles of food were introduced to the throng. It's in our nature to fight real hard for the most when the most is presented as an option. 

Guns are not the sole cause of public shootings. Super wealth is not the sole cause of public shootings. The culprit is the two combined. 

We have a malady of ideals in this nation. Our desires are cancerous in that we want it all without sacrifice. I'm not indicting anyone, I crave the same things you do. I just see the writing on the wall now. If we want to see a decline in these sorts of abhorrent catastrophes, I believe we have to exercise that beloved, and at times difficult, power of choice. "Freedom isn't free", right?

We have to pick one. Do we want guns? Or do we want unchecked prosperity? Because looking at the numbers, and the landscape as it stands today, we're instinctively ill-equipped to handle the two as bedfellows. 

Don't get me wrong, the choice still stands before us to continue down the path we're currently on. It's there. It's our right. But if we do, we all need to just shut our mouths, quit bitching, and learn to stomach aerial images of our children being lead out of learning institutions like shell-shocked prisoners of war.

****SIDE NOTE BEFORE YOU SAY IT: Yes, violent crime rates are on the decrease. But what I think people need to realize is that they spiked reaaaal high when baby boomers were hitting the ages between 18-to 24, the age range that men are most likely to commit violent crimes within. That bubble has deflated leaving a depression. But let's not assume that less than atrocious is good. Our murder rates are still kicking most every other industrialized nation's ass. I'm not mad at guns. I'm not mad at wealth. I'm merely saying that I don't believe the two together will create an environment ripe for rationality. Below is a chart showing population of certain age demographics by year. For the most part age 20-44 years old stays steady until it dips in the 70's and then shoots up in the 90's as baby boomers reach early 20's, following the spiking gun violence statistics. Then the numbers shrink after the baby boomers get older, following the dip we're seeing in gun crime.*******