Kempner reader offers three-part proposal to end gun violence

Now with more than 600 mass shootings in 2022, the call grows louder to do something. The old positions of gun control, more mental health help and laws to keep guns from dangerous people get louder but languish in implementation.

There are three components that have to be recognized to change the trend. The first is to recognize that current shoots are copy cat behaviors in expressing rage.

I would say that almost all the shooters are also suicidal. A significant portion of all suicides have anger as a component, but it is turned inward. The young male who feels enraged and victimized identifies with the story of a perpetrator who goes down in a blaze of glory with his assault rifle.

The second component is the marketing of assault rifles. Like glass packs on my car as a teenager, the position of a powerful gun is an extension of his statement of power. And the gun manufacturers market it that way.

I am a gun owner and licensed to carry, but no one needs an assault rifle. They are not defense weapons unless you are of the Oath Keepers mindset that you will have to take down our corrupt government someday.

We need a buy-back program. NRA will say criminals will get guns anyway. It isn’t criminals doing the mass killing.

The third component is the current discourse of rage, blame and victimization.

I learned a new word: stochastic. It means to say things that incite others to act. The charge on the Capitol is the most recent example but history is full of such actions. Hitler used it masterfully to channel the resentment following WW I and the Depression.

Oliver North did Reagan’s dirty work in the Iran Contra scandal. Newt Gingrich’s Moral Majority political theme demonized the opposition and the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband reflects the same scathing rhetoric directed toward her.

Because many political leaders believe resentment wins them votes, this atmosphere of anger and blame will continue. This now is our national theme and drives all the previously mentioned behaviors. It will only end when voters will not support candidates who fuel this negativity.

Warren Townsend

Kempner