We Have a Much Bigger Problem than Gun Control

Been thinking about the shootings in Connecticut this week, and I've come to the obvious conclusion that we as a nation have a much bigger problem on our hands than gun control. This problem has been building for generations, and in recent years it has manifested itself in the most horrendous, vile, and horrible ways possible - the deaths of innocents, especially children.

The problem isn't gun control or the lack thereof, people - it's much, much bigger than that.

The problem is the breakdown of society and the moral fabric of our nation that would make anyone of any kind of mindset even consider walking into a school and shooting 26 innocent people. This breakdown of society has been going on for generations, and we as a nation for various reasons have either allowed or forced this to happen, depending on which side of the political fence you're sitting. (And I'm going to make it a point NOT to make this a political statement of any kind, a first for me.)

Sixty, fifty, even forty years ago acts of random violence like this were absolutely unheard of. Parents taught their children to respect their elders, their community, the law, other people, and their nation. Sure, there were those miscreants who defied authority and disrespected everyone and everything, but they were the exception rather than the rule. And even then, they didn't pick up an automatic rifle or a pistol and walk into a daycare center blasting at anything that moved - they ended up in prison where they weren't a threat to anyone except other convicts.

But then, slowly but surely, things began to change. Somewhere along the line a generation of parents felt it wasn't important to teach all of the things about respecting others to their children that their parents taught them, so they left out a few key things. And when those children grew up and had children of their own, they left out a few of the things they'd been taught - and so on, and so on, until we now have a society where people think it's their right to say or do anything they want, regardless of how it affects other people.

We as a nation have lost respect for each other, for our laws, for our nation as a whole, and for humanity. It is the loss of this respect which allows the miscreants of our society to carry out acts such as mass murder; it is the uncaring nature of our society which allows those with mental illnesses to go untreated until they finally go over the edge and take 20 innocent children with them. It is the "devil may care, do what you want" attitude of our society which allows someone to walk into a college classroom and start shooting because he "was picked on as a child."

The problem, friends and neighbors, is that we have allowed our society to degenerate into a society where repercussions are unheard of and not expected, and accountability and responsibility are explained away. We are more concerned with not "offending" someone's delicate sensitivities than we are with protecting our children from the madness and evil in the world, and ensuring that those who perpetrate such evil are held accountable and justly punished. We have allowed our society to become one in which the accused has more rights than the victim.

And we must stop this - NOW.

The first step, in my humble opinion, is for our nation as a whole to take off the political/ideological/religious blinders that we have placed on ourselves and look at the problem with an unbiased, honest view. Yeah, that's gonna be tough, but I don't think it's anything we can't do. And once we get the blinders off and everyone finally sees what the real problem is, then and only then can we work together towards a solution.

And again, in my humble opinion, that solution is realizing that we must start teaching our children what is right and responsible, we much teach our children - and each other - that everyone deserves respect, and to be respectful of others as you would have them be respectful of you. We have to once again make our society one in which the individual is held responsible for his/her actions, and punish the perpetrator and not the bystander or the victim.

In short, we have to restore morality, dignity, and respect to the people of our nation.

And we need to do it now.

IHC