This is a list of things we can, should, and need to do to end gun violence.
1. Pass background checks. This is literally the least we can do.
2. With background checks, we can prevent those with a history of domestic violence from purchasing guns. The most common factor in gun violence is a history of domestic violence
3. Bring to justice those accused of domestic violence.
4. Ban bump stocks. Bump stocks are when after a mass shooting, gun sales sky rocket. It happens everytime.
5. Ban/regulate the gun lobbyists/NRA
6. Gun buyback program/raid or arrest those who stockpile guns. Most guns are actually held by a small amount of the population, who stockpile them.
7. Shut down the gun manufacturers. We can do all the above, which would help quite a bit, but there’d still be gun violence. If we shut down the gun manufacturers, there’d be no more guns made, thus no more guns people can buy.
8. Shut down movies that glorify violence, whether it be domestic violence like in Fifty Shades of Grey, or Superhero movies where violence saves the day, or war movies that glorify the military and war. Film, and particularly Hollywood film, has a big influence on society.
9. Shut down the weapons/bomb manufacturers. The weapons industry is one of the three big criminal industries in the world. The U.S is the #1 weapons exporter in the world. Our country was founded on violence, and to this day, our foundation rests on violence, without which the U.S would have no legitimacy and would collapse overnight. I can write a whole post on just the weapons industry, which I probably will later. What we do to others around the world always comes home.
10. Shut down the military/military industrial complex. The whole purpose of the military is to shoot and kill people. When we say ‘support the troops’ or ‘stand for the anthem to honor the troops’ we’re supporting and enabling violence. Glorifying the military is to say, violence is the answer. War is good. War is just legalized murder. When troops are held in high status, it sends the message that violence makes you a man, or violence makes you a woman.
11. Dismantle our nuclear weapons. Same thing as the military. When having nukes is legitimized by saying we need them as a deterrent to keep us safe, we are saying that we aren’t safe unless millions of other people have to fear instant death. We are saying that our safety is dependent on the threat of violence. That for us to be safe, it’s totally okay to kill millions of people.
12. Shut down/abolish the trade economy. The trade economy makes us all products, not human beings. We all see each other as products. We value people based on their currency value. Money comes before everything else. We all have to have jobs. We can’t shut down Lockheed Martin because jobs, even though those jobs are to build weapons which inevitably are used to kill human beings. We can’t oppose oil pipelines because jobs, even though those jobs are raping the earth. We date/marry people based on how much money they have or don’t have. Caring for your child at home isn’t a paying job, but being a soldier or private mercenary killing human beings is a paid job. We pay people to kill other people. We don’t pay people to give birth. We even sell sex. We even sell other people. Human trafficking is the biggest criminal industry in the world.
So yea, it’s all tied together. All of that contributes to gun violence. But addressing all that is probably too much to ask, so we’ll just start with background checks, even if it’s not the end all magic solution to gun violence.
adamkendall2 