Killing, Loving & Reason

Why all these killings? They seem to come in waves. Someone walks into someplace where they have worked, or gone to school or worshipped, and spray the people with gunfire. I used to think it was because we let people have guns so easily, and I still think we ought to make it harder. But recent studies of countries that make guns as widely available as we do but have nothing like our murder rate, seems to suggest it also has something to do with our national character.

I understand violence. I have felt angry enough to hurt someone. But I never have. We sometimes call it impulse control. And it is about how we manage passion. President Clinton lacked it in sexual matters. The irony is that often those we admire are those whose passion is barely managed.

What separates a person who gets angry and shouts or slams a door or pouts, from someone who shoots a gun?

Our culture has blurred the line between fantasy and reality. Not only in the sophisticated world of entertainment, but in our political life. Clearly we are more persuaded by appeals to our emotion than to mere words, like these.

And since that is unlikely to change, we had better figure out some new strategies for making our common life safer. Until we better understand human nature, how about gun control? It is too easy to kill with guns.