No one wants to see violence of any kind but the constitution is hardly an antiquated or irrelevant document. It’s what gives us the right to say it is or not and the point of having included it had zero to do with hunting. That was a given. There was no 911 to call or supermarkets to shop for dinner. The framers knew that the ppl needed the right to have a means to fight back at tyranny. There remains a reason for that. Firearms are the great equalizer. I can no longer physically defend my home, family or self. I have had training and periodically practice shooting.
Our society continues to embrace ever more graphic violence in entertainment of every stripe. The devaluing of human life is a cancer that is devouring all manner of ethical standards. The wealthy have armed protections and many have fortress like retreats while those who are less fortunate have to live in the mess they profit from.
All people, even kids had access to firearms in days gone by. The murder rate was significantly less. Why? Because ppl also had a stronger sense of right and wrong.
The estimate of soldiers who actually fired at enemy combatants in WWII was roughly 25%. This is attributed to the natural aversion most ppl have to killing. By the time of the Vietnam war training methods changed from shooting targets to human shaped forms. The number of Vietnam soldiers who fired at the enemy rose to 90%. Since that time every aspect of our modern world has effectively reprogrammed normal ppl to be desensitized to murder and violence. Killing because an individual “feels” justified has become acceptable, even celebrated.
I hear what you are saying but there’s far more to the picture. Most of the school shooters were socially marginalized kids who were victims of excessive bullying.
School administrators continue to fail at identifying this. Not all kids who are picked on become murderous but this is a serious issue too. Mean parents raise mean kids. This isn’t a new problem by any means. There will always be bad ppl. Hopefully there will always be more decent ppl. Even in our own country the areas or states with the greatest restrictions on an individuals legal ability to posses firearms have the highest levels of gun violence. In the world at large the nations with the most severe restrictions on firearms (Mexico, Honduras, Columbia) have some of the highest rates of murder. The US isn’t even in the top ten. We could and must do better but criminals don’t care what your laws allow.
The best way to reduce violence is to change hearts, be more disciplined about glorifying violence in entertainment and return to emphasizing right from wrong.
Children, like monkeys, are more inclined to do what they see than what they hear...
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I would just quibble that the introduction of automatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines changes the equations. As for the outdatedness of the Constitution, I'll cop to having been overly broad, but really, it was written when slavery was legal and morally justified by many, women were barely human in a legal sense, and genocide was a national policy. Amendments helped and my argument is that there should be more, better ones to account for the passage of centuries and the evolution of technology and ethical standards.
As for changes in the acceptability of killing. In America's early days, killing Indians was considered by many equivalent to the extermination of inconvenient vermin or simply sport.
It has been decades since any private citizen can legally own an automatic weapon.
As for the state of social evolution yeah, society has indeed come a far way from 1776. Women were second class citizens just about everywhere on earth with the exception of royalty but even they were careful to stay within the customary bounds of lady like demeanor and the framers purposefully omitted the word slave anywhere in the constitution as they didn’t want to have it be seen as an institutionalized or codified practice. Some, like Hamilton, were abolitionists.
Murder has always been a crime. Yes the treatment of native Americans was inexcusable and I would venture to say that if any ppl group deserves reparations it would be them and for our broken treaties.
We don’t call Alexander the colonizer, the world has changed yet it seems there’s been digression in the past decade. I do not and have never supported bigotry, racial or ethnic or the unequal treatment of any person for any reason aside from demonstrated poor behavior.
I have followed your Substack column for some time and have greatly enjoyed your talent for photographic contrasts. I hope I haven’t offended you.
The history of humanity is unfortunately riddled with immense inhumanity. Imma guess there will be more but every kindness matters.
Terry, your metaphors are gripping: wearing assault weapons draped like pageant sashes, and the warm pistol reminiscent of Lennon and McCarthy “happiness is a warm gun.”. Thank you for the powerful comments.
Eternal argument! My husband and sons were hunters andtarget shooters ,and I always respected their use and love of guns,and they respected my dislike and fear of them! on the day my husband died,my sons took the guns out of my house,knowing that was what I wanted. Needless to say,they all were sorespectful and cautious with them,evenbuilt and restored the stocks. But I ,while trusting them totally with them,have afear of anyone else with them!
Yes, there are respectful and responsible gun owners like your husband and sons, and I suspect that they would cheer reforms and regulations that would act to ensure that all gun owners use these weapons safely. And I would venture that hunting for meat is more ethical than supporting industrial livestock operations, where often both animals and workers are pieces of meat.
Oh,you are so right on the cheering part!Warner was a writer about all outdoorsy things,and gun control was a big part of his work. He hated to post our land,but felt he had to to try to keep control of the whole hunting situation.Our boys feel the same. There really are ethical,intelligent gun owners- just nowhere near enough of them!
No one wants to see violence of any kind but the constitution is hardly an antiquated or irrelevant document. It’s what gives us the right to say it is or not and the point of having included it had zero to do with hunting. That was a given. There was no 911 to call or supermarkets to shop for dinner. The framers knew that the ppl needed the right to have a means to fight back at tyranny. There remains a reason for that. Firearms are the great equalizer. I can no longer physically defend my home, family or self. I have had training and periodically practice shooting.
Our society continues to embrace ever more graphic violence in entertainment of every stripe. The devaluing of human life is a cancer that is devouring all manner of ethical standards. The wealthy have armed protections and many have fortress like retreats while those who are less fortunate have to live in the mess they profit from.
All people, even kids had access to firearms in days gone by. The murder rate was significantly less. Why? Because ppl also had a stronger sense of right and wrong.
The estimate of soldiers who actually fired at enemy combatants in WWII was roughly 25%. This is attributed to the natural aversion most ppl have to killing. By the time of the Vietnam war training methods changed from shooting targets to human shaped forms. The number of Vietnam soldiers who fired at the enemy rose to 90%. Since that time every aspect of our modern world has effectively reprogrammed normal ppl to be desensitized to murder and violence. Killing because an individual “feels” justified has become acceptable, even celebrated.
I hear what you are saying but there’s far more to the picture. Most of the school shooters were socially marginalized kids who were victims of excessive bullying.
School administrators continue to fail at identifying this. Not all kids who are picked on become murderous but this is a serious issue too. Mean parents raise mean kids. This isn’t a new problem by any means. There will always be bad ppl. Hopefully there will always be more decent ppl. Even in our own country the areas or states with the greatest restrictions on an individuals legal ability to posses firearms have the highest levels of gun violence. In the world at large the nations with the most severe restrictions on firearms (Mexico, Honduras, Columbia) have some of the highest rates of murder. The US isn’t even in the top ten. We could and must do better but criminals don’t care what your laws allow.
The best way to reduce violence is to change hearts, be more disciplined about glorifying violence in entertainment and return to emphasizing right from wrong.
Children, like monkeys, are more inclined to do what they see than what they hear...
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I would just quibble that the introduction of automatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines changes the equations. As for the outdatedness of the Constitution, I'll cop to having been overly broad, but really, it was written when slavery was legal and morally justified by many, women were barely human in a legal sense, and genocide was a national policy. Amendments helped and my argument is that there should be more, better ones to account for the passage of centuries and the evolution of technology and ethical standards.
As for changes in the acceptability of killing. In America's early days, killing Indians was considered by many equivalent to the extermination of inconvenient vermin or simply sport.
It has been decades since any private citizen can legally own an automatic weapon.
As for the state of social evolution yeah, society has indeed come a far way from 1776. Women were second class citizens just about everywhere on earth with the exception of royalty but even they were careful to stay within the customary bounds of lady like demeanor and the framers purposefully omitted the word slave anywhere in the constitution as they didn’t want to have it be seen as an institutionalized or codified practice. Some, like Hamilton, were abolitionists.
Murder has always been a crime. Yes the treatment of native Americans was inexcusable and I would venture to say that if any ppl group deserves reparations it would be them and for our broken treaties.
We don’t call Alexander the colonizer, the world has changed yet it seems there’s been digression in the past decade. I do not and have never supported bigotry, racial or ethnic or the unequal treatment of any person for any reason aside from demonstrated poor behavior.
I have followed your Substack column for some time and have greatly enjoyed your talent for photographic contrasts. I hope I haven’t offended you.
The history of humanity is unfortunately riddled with immense inhumanity. Imma guess there will be more but every kindness matters.
👏👏👏💯💥
Well said.
Thanks, Susan
p.s. what's the deal with paper clips?
People were cleaning up an old building to put it to public use and the kid was delighted to find the clips. Ah, simple pleasures.
Terry, your metaphors are gripping: wearing assault weapons draped like pageant sashes, and the warm pistol reminiscent of Lennon and McCarthy “happiness is a warm gun.”. Thank you for the powerful comments.
Thanks. Sometimes I allow myself to indulge.
Terry, you nailed it. Thank You!
Thank you, Tom, for reading and commenting.
Eternal argument! My husband and sons were hunters andtarget shooters ,and I always respected their use and love of guns,and they respected my dislike and fear of them! on the day my husband died,my sons took the guns out of my house,knowing that was what I wanted. Needless to say,they all were sorespectful and cautious with them,evenbuilt and restored the stocks. But I ,while trusting them totally with them,have afear of anyone else with them!
Yes, there are respectful and responsible gun owners like your husband and sons, and I suspect that they would cheer reforms and regulations that would act to ensure that all gun owners use these weapons safely. And I would venture that hunting for meat is more ethical than supporting industrial livestock operations, where often both animals and workers are pieces of meat.
Oh,you are so right on the cheering part!Warner was a writer about all outdoorsy things,and gun control was a big part of his work. He hated to post our land,but felt he had to to try to keep control of the whole hunting situation.Our boys feel the same. There really are ethical,intelligent gun owners- just nowhere near enough of them!
Sigh!😡😢
Very powerful Opposable, especially text, which I hope reaches a wide audience.
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