So, we’ve had two acts of homegrown terrorism while I’ve been off doing meatspace stuff. I see some jackass tried to torch a Planned Parenthood, and some shitstain with a gun shot up a community college, killing at least ten people. But of course, this will all have nothing to do with the right-wing war on reproductive health care and this country’s refusal to engage in some sensible gun control. And they won’t be called terrorists. Just lone wolves. And I haven’t read much more than headlines so far, but I’m sure someone’s already busted out their imaginary copy of the DSM and their non-existent psychiatric degree and called at least one of them mentally ill.
I have only a few things to say at this time:
1. Both of these acts were acts of terrorism. The people who committed them are terrorists. Period, full stop.
2. It’s time we stop blaming mental illness every time a right winger or white dude does this stuff. A person doesn’t have to be, and often isn’t, mentally ill to be an angry, violent asshole.
3. This shit will not stop so long as we worship guns and fetuses in this country.
4. The people who need to understand points 1, 2, and 3 will deliberately ignore them.
5. Fuck those people.
I’m not going to read the news tonight. I’m going to extend my condolences to the victims’ families, friends, and colleagues. I’m going to offer Jedi hugs to the people whose community and college were just torn apart. I’m going to offer a solidarity fist-bump to the folks whose building was set on fire by some douchewagon who can’t stand the idea of women, trans men, and non-binary folk controlling their own fertility. And I’m going to support them in any way I can as they rebuild.
I’m not going to cede this country to the homegrown terrorists who think they can control it by violence.
And I’m going to remember that a lot of good people standing shoulder-to-shoulder can change the fucking world.
My friends, that is just what we are going to do. That is what we are doing. And that is why they fear us so.
Have you had a chance to see the President’s comments?
“I’m damn tired of calling families and telling them how sorry I am, and not being able to fix the problem. We know what to do.” (Paraphrased, of course.)
fusilier
James 2:24
I’d go one further – people suffering from mental illness are significantly less likely to commit violent crimes than the general population. The rational reaction to “What? John Doe went on a mass-shooting spree? Huh, maybe he wasn’t mentally ill after all.”
Obama’s speech on this was excellent I thought :
Well writ, Dana Hunter, well writ and seconded by me.
I also like what Jim Wright has written on this issue, too many times, too often nothing changes.
http://www.stonekettle.com/2012/07/the-seven-stages-of-gun-violence.html
Maybe this time? Will one time, sometime eventually force a change in thought and behaviour and actions to fix this?
It can be done – Look what happened here in Australia with gun violence post the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
See :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Australia#Port_Arthur_massacre_and_its_consequences
Plus :
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/06/australia-hasnt-had-a-mass-shooting-since-1996/
A lot of other nations have managed similar things and have far tougher gun laws too. It doesn’t stop all massacres and acts of terrorism – but i do think it helps reduce them in number and severity.
I think education and cultural changes – and the media being responsible and not sensationalising and exploiting these sort of horrors really makes a difference too.