{"id":5293,"date":"2015-10-04T08:13:40","date_gmt":"2015-10-04T12:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5293"},"modified":"2015-10-04T14:28:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-04T18:28:27","slug":"curbing-the-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5293","title":{"rendered":"curbing the violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pie-chart-149727_640\"<\/a>Another shooting. Another predictable, rhetorical cycle. It goes something like this:<\/p>\n

There is too much violence!<\/em>
\nWhen are we going to stop this?!<\/em>
\nWe need more gun control!<\/em>
\nNo, we don\u2019t! <\/em>
\nYes, we do!<\/em>
\nNo, we don\u2019t!<\/em>
\nYes, we do!<\/em><\/p>\n

And hence, the disrespectful debate continues. We have lots of admirably passionate leaders and individuals, but the issue is never adequately solved.<\/p>\n

My strong sense is that the issue of curbing gun violence is never adequately solved because we never deal with all<\/strong> that influences the issue. We rant and rave and pick and choose what aspect to jump on; we fulminate on Facebook or utilize Twitter to take others to task\u2026 \u201cWhen will this stop?!\u201d<\/em> That\u2019s the main idea; we want it to stop. Save for a less honorable few, yes, we all want it to stop.<\/p>\n

But we tend to harp on aspects nearer and dearer to our hearts; we tend to repeat angles consistent with our favorite partisan proclamations. We blame people, presidents, and police. We blame groups and gangs who we perceive to most contribute to the existence of gun violence. We tend to emphasize singular aspects while ignoring other aspects \u2014 as opposed to wrestle with and acknowledge all<\/strong> angles of the problem. Such as (in alphabetical order):<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Evil
\n2. Gangs
\n3. Law
\n4. Lobbyists
\n5. Mental health
\n6. Movies
\n7. Rap music
\n8. Sin
\n9. Terrorism
\n10. Video games<\/p>\n

And more.<\/p>\n

Many will address only one<\/em> of the above. Addressing\u00a0only one aspect, however, seems a futile attempt to adhere a tiny, tiny Band-Aid on a pulsating, gaping wound\u00a0\u2014 that will thus continue to bleed. The Band-Aid makes us feel better… but it isn’t effective.<\/p>\n

For example, many will understandably direct their angst toward the lobbyists \u2014 at the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), suggesting the group’s approximate $3 million dollars spent annually distorts the legislative process.\u00a0<\/em>Many simultaneously ignore that the NRA isn\u2019t included in\u00a0the top 20 spenders \u2014 and were also silent when the American Medical Association (AMA) influenced healthcare and the National Association of Realtors (NAR) influenced mortgage lending legislation. AMA has spent $19.5 million<\/strong>\u00a0and the NAR has spent near $16 million<\/strong> this year thus far.<\/em>\u00a0(Note that the Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest lobbyist spender, has spent\u00a0$42 million<\/strong> in 2015.)<\/em> We need to be consistent in our\u00a0cries out against lobbyists’ influence\u00a0\u2014 a stated passion of the Intramuralist.<\/p>\n

Others examples of addressing singular aspects are seen in how some only focus on the perceived sins of the shooter \u2014 ignoring the potential mental health component or illness. Others still, will focus only on mental health \u2014 ignoring how\u00a0evil so obviously permeates this world.<\/p>\n

Forget not the impact of the music, movie, and gaming industries. Amazon, Forbes, and USA Today all show lists of the most popular video games dominated by celebrated violence.<\/p>\n

I wonder, too, if the gunman’s motives are relevant\u2026 The shooter at Umpqua Community College in Oregon last week, for example, killed people because they were Christians. Said one witness via Twitter, if they were Christian, \u201cThen they were shot in the head. If they said no, or didn\u2019t answer, they were shot in the legs.\u201d<\/em> Seems like gun control isn\u2019t the only issue here. Can we honestly wrestle with the religious persecution? Maybe the motive is the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

My point today, friends, is that there are all sorts of angles and approaches when considering the violence on this planet. We have a desire to curb it, to stop it. But unless we are willing to wrestle with and acknowledge the totality of the problem \u2014 and the entire bigger picture \u2014 our efforts, as good and passionate as they may sound, may remain sadly futile.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another shooting. Another predictable, rhetorical cycle. It goes something like this: There is too much violence! When are we going to stop this?! We need more gun control! No, we don\u2019t! Yes, we do! No, we don\u2019t! Yes, we do! And hence, the disrespectful debate continues. We have lots of admirably passionate leaders and individuals, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “curbing the violence”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[183],"class_list":["post-5293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue","tag-gun-control"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5293"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5306,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293\/revisions\/5306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}