A few weeks ago, the head of the NYPD criticized Latinos and blacks for tolerating gun violence. Commissioner Ray Kelly’s timing could not
have been more exquisite, for as we all know, some nut in Colorado has decided to take part in that most American of activities: the mass shooting of strangers.
Although it’s true that “America’s Hispanic population suffers from firearm violence at rates far greater than the U.S. population overall,” the idea that Latinos are more accepting of violence is darkly hilarious. After all, most of the mass shootings that grab headlines have taken place in predominately white small towns and suburbs.
So while we hold candlelight vigils and say we’ll never forget, in truth, all Americans — not just Latinos — accept gun violence as inevitable. It’s apparently the price we pay for freedom… well, at least the freedom to shoot a hundred rounds at once.
But of course, that’s the problem. Proponents of a broad definition of the Second Amendment say a well-armed citizenry is necessary to protect our liberty. But having a gun in American is no longer about defending yourself from an intruder or preventing mythical government tyranny. At some point, packing heat became a goal in and of itself, an end in search of a means.
Simply put, we love guns. Actually, we fetishize them. They are part of us.
In other industrialized nations, guns are for the most part feared, or utilized as tools. Here, they are celebrated, held up as iconic, and are entirely appropriate for children to display in Christmas cards.
Speaking of other advanced nations, most have stricter gun laws than the United States, and most have lower rates of gun violence. In fact, “there’s substantial evidence that indicates more guns means more murders. This holds true whether you’re looking at different countries or different [U.S.] states.” So the idea that more guns make us safer doesn’t seem to be working out so well in real life.
America has comparable rates of violence when it comes to things like beatings, stabbings, and the like. But when it comes to gun violence, we are in our own orbit, anywhere from ten to twenty times as high. And that very large exception gives us an overall higher homicide rate than most other industrialized nations, despite the fact that U.S. crime is way down.
Some have pointed out that other countries “have about the same percentage of crazy people that we do. It’s just that they can’t get their hands on firearms so easily.”
And this leads us back to that maniac in Colorado. If this germ lived in, say, England, it wouldn’t cross his mind that he could buy 6,000 rounds of ammunition. He might as well wish for a tank or a nuclear bomb. But in America, he knew he could get it.
His crazy idea about stockpiling guns and ammo wouldn’t go away. Because deep down, he knew that it was his birthright as an American.
About Daniel Cubias
same way MEXICANS accept violence in MEXICO!
we don’t accept it…..we have to deal and live with it!
damn right its American duty to protect our ourselves!
Why do people keep blaming guns and not big pharma? Why is it we don’t see the connection between this shooter and the face eaters and others who were on some kind of legal drug? How is it a broke student was able to buy all of that if he had no money? Why is it Being Latino decided to write this kind of an article without researching the incident? =( I love ya’ll, but please don’t turn into MSM and forget about investigative journalism, lol. You forget, the UK is living under martial law. People don’t realize how restrictive that country is and how its violence has risen since its ban on guns. *sigh*
nobody asks what if a citizen carrying concealed was there maybe it would’ve turned out differently.
Halffast Jose, who told you mexicans accept violence in Mexico, moron?? They are fighting against it, Mexico was not a country full of violence, the problem with Mexico WAS the kidnapping industry, they had a high crime of that but shootings?? NO MORON, you dont know shyt about Mexico nor its crime rate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
The only reason Mexico is in 19th place is because of the drug war that broke out in that year. Puerto Rico has a much higher crime rate than Mexico itself, so shut your mouth fat bitch and keep my beautiful country out of your pig as mouth.
U.S Americans love their guns, love their violence and love ruining countries around the world, U.S.A home of morons and psychopaths, seriously.
why is 12 deaths from a rare massacre bigger news then more frequent gun deaths in Los Angeles ( which by the way has way stricter gun laws than Colorado)
@Advocate OfWordz: I don’t believe that he was on any drugs; he may have just been a nut. Regardless, people have been killing each other without drugs since time immemorial.
@Angel: Yes, if a citizen were carrying a concealed weapon, it would have turned out differently, and by that I mean it would have been much worse. Think about it: you’re minding your own business watching the movie and out of nowhere there’s a crazy dude with several guns and body armor, so you, shocked, try to come to terms with what is going on, so after a few seconds of panic you stand up and try to shoot the guy with body armor who’s surrounded by smoke from a grenade and inevitably increase the death toll by getting more people trapped in the crossfire.
I think this article is misleading because it over simplifies a complex topic. I wish it was simple but its not and unfortunately this topic asks americans to do something extremely hard, look at ourselves and face the reality that the environment that we have created, or at least been complicit in creating in conjunction with those we give control, is not conducive to healthy human beings neither mentally, physically or spiritually. The sooner we accept this the sooner we stop band aiding the symptoms and start healing the real wound, because a pencil is just a pencil until someone draws with it, in other words, guns don’t kill people, people kill people…We must stop blaming guns and look at the people but not just the ones pulling triggers, lets look at the village that is raising them.. Because the truth is our society is sick and even if most of us can agree on that, most of us have been so indoctrinated by this system that we’re too scared to put in the work it takes to heal and evolve to a better one…I know we can do it, it takes time, effort and communication like openly discussing these topics…so kudos for writing/posting/opening the discussion. “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”-J.Krishnamurti
Josh, you’re wrong. Some “U.S. Americans”, have a love affair with guns,but we don’t love violence and we don’t make foreign policies. I agree with Jose, we have to live with it and try to change it come election time. Would you rather live in Mexico where people are found almost every day bound and headless? I’m an armed citizen, and if I’d been at that theatre I would have tried to take out that idiot and protect the rest!
Yes I rather live in Mexico, you act like everyone in Mexico is living in fear and that everyone in Mexico is getting their heads chop off, did you know the mexican immigration to the USA has dropped?? No mexican is immigrating to the USA, that will give you a clue how well Mexico is becoming now, all the USA is receiving now is a bunch of central americans. The ones who have it worse in Mexico is Tamaulipas(its northern region) and Nuevo Leon, why?? because those are border states of Mexico and they are close to the USA, is my family in Mexico in fear? NOOOO, they go out at night and nothing happens, stop believing everything you hear on the news about Mexico. Chicago is more dangerous, in a week 18 have been murdered over shootings.
Its not the guns and its not tht we accept violence as you put it…..What it is, is BIG CORPORATIONS AND POLITICIANS dictate what and how stuff happens. Gun production is big business and its controlled by a bunch of backwood, happy go trigger finger lucky republicans who dont care about anything but getting fatter!!!
@Benjamin, that is an interesting point, but I must disagree with you. To compare a gun to a pencil is itself an oversimplification; while a pencil can be used to write words that incite violence, it is unlike a gun, an object that is inherently built with the sole purpose of shooting and injuring/killing, and unless you’re the Joker, you can’t kill someone simply with a pencil.
The majority of people I’ve seen rant on this issue know very little about guns & pull the statistics they want to hear. As for states with higher gun laws having less gun violence, simply not true, and actually the reverse. You can get these stats directly from the FBI website- http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/crimestats
I liked your article till I read your “mythical goverment tyranny quote”. Do you believe that the goverment does not overstep its grounds in regards to our rights. You are crazy, having guns prevents that, if not move to a state and have a police force go around to collect guns from the citizenry and see how they respond. They will become fearful of being shot.
According to what I have read the right to bear arms exists for two reasons. 1st to form a militia to protect the state, 2nd to prevent the goverment from trappling the rights of the people. The first may be a antiquated but the second will always exist.
How about black water huh?
Like KRS said, you’re never going to have justice on stolen land
Gun violence is NOT soley a U.S. American problem. It’s a problem all over the globe! Let’s not point the finger at one and overlook others now!
Gun violence is down in the states, illegal immigration is down thanks to our laws changing but it still happens, millions in the states live their entire lives without coming in contact of any kind with violence. I’m sure the same applies to Mexico. We don’t have drug “cartels” committing those crimes. It isn’t a question of which country is better, I believe enforcement of our current laws is the problem. Stricter laws will only hurt legal purchasers, which the Colorado shooter was. How do you tell if someone is going to do what he did? You can’t. You also can’t live your lives worrying about it.
Oh yeah, Josh, according to the link you posted, intentional homicides are much, much higher in central America than in the U.S. in fact in Mexico alone it’s just as high as in our southern states and much higher in the border areas of Mexico and the U.S. (noticed I haven’t called anyone a moron?)
The fact in this column are tired and worn and simply come out of the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence. We have a 2nd Amendment for a reason, and it’s quite simple to understand why it’s part of the Bill of Rights if one did some studying of our history. This nation was created for people who aspired to live in liberty, in freedom, not to live under tyranny, under oppression. Sure, one may think such argument about oppression is silly given we tend to live good lives here and think, unfortunately, that the government can’t ever take our rights away. There are many different types of oppression. Just look at how people live their lives and you can tell whether they created their own oppression or it’s something that is sponsored by the government itself with the individual willing to be oppressed. I’m thinking here welfare mentality, but that’s another topic. Guns are not the problem, folks. I own several guns and I carry conceal in NC, and I can carry conceal throughout most of the USA in states where there is reciprocity with NC. I can even carry conceal in Colorado despite the unenforceable local gun control ordinances like in Aurora.
Now, let’s get some facts here and not simply spout the nonsense form the gun control crowd. Every year, the FBI publishes facts as they relate to crime. Overall, out of a nation of 310M people, roughly 23,000 people are murdered on average every year. Of those murdered, roughly 8,500 are as a result of firearms. Meaning, let’s put this in context here folks. That translates to 1/3 of murders. Meaning, that 2/3 of murders are the result of non-firearms discharges. What does that mean? It means that most murders are committed by a variety of means such as knives, bats, pipes, forced drowning, poison, vehicular, bombs, arson, fistfights, electrocution, you name it. Yet, why all the fuss about guns?
The USA is a huge nation as we all know. 310M people living here and you’re bound to brush up against a nut. The world is full of them. You don’t think murders are committed in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Australia? Of course they are committed in these places. The thing is that in the USA, THE PEOPLE have an inherent right, a right codified in the US Constitution, to bear arms for the protection of the individual citizen. The only other nation I think that has a similar view of this is Switzerland, being a small country with a small protection force on guard at all times, the citizenry is required to have at least one firearm in their household.
Blah bla blah! It is the parents faults for not wooping some ass!!!
In the USA, there are 90M armed citizens, and I’m not including here criminals, folks. I’m one of the 90M Americans who possesses without the fear of a NYC/NYS gun control (and unconstitutional) law would show me the inside of a prison. I carry conceal all the time. You don’t know how beautiful it is to carry, let alone carry conceal, until you can do so without threat of arrest and prison time. When you live in places like NY, CA and IL, you don’t know what freedom is until you experience the 2nd Amendment yourself.
TRUTH IS: More people were killed by Drunk Drivers on the day of the movie massacre and each and every day before and since then. NOBODY is regulating a limit to how many beers a person may have in their refrigerator, or how many cans of beer fit into a case from the gas station. None of the liberals or media outlets will admit or accept places with strict gun control are ALSO have the HIGHEST murder rates, rapes, muggings, stabbings and related drug and property crime statistics. THESE ARE FACTS!!!
MEXICO?? Nations of AFRICA??? They have the HIGHEST VIOLENCE IN THE WORLD!!!! and ALL of them have HIGHLY RESTRICTIVE firearms laws!! Get your facts straight and respect the creed of unbiased journalistic discipline before you wipe the ass of the Internet with another one of your unfounded, inaccurate opinion pieces.