GUNS and LOVE

                                       Photo: "Dread or Alive" by Rudy Randa


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First I would like to extend my heartfelt sorrow at not only the people who passed in the recent tragedy in CT, but also the people who are victims of gun violence everyday all over the world, whether in the projects of Chicago, a child of war in Darfur, or soldier in Iraq, death by a bullet is always unjust and inhumane. I intend for strength and light and Blessings to all victims and their families during this tumultuous time.

OK. Since I am not connected to Facebook anymore I didn’t have to sift through the reactionary haphazard call to arms of everyone who was horrified by the tragedy in Connecticut, but that doesn’t mean I am blissfully unaware of the diatribe that is filling your newsfeed. I can imagine it now :

“ban guns!  look at the statistics, we need more gun control laws”

then the other side

“we have the right to bear arms, you can pry my gun from my cold dead body”

Then people start in with their statistics. OH MY, statistics! So malleable, so easily deceiving these statistics that people love to shove down others throats.

Here is a statistic for you :

People who own guns are more likely to be victim of gun violence than people who do not own guns.

I have another :

The majority of forest fires take place in forests.

Meh to statistics. I go by my intuition on this one, and although I get a some sort of kick out of shooting a handgun or rifle for target practice, I have never felt aligned with any type of higher purpose or sensation with a loaded gun in my hand. It is an instrument of death, and I have never felt like it was good, or right.

WHY?

For starters because I can feel the intentions for which this instrument was born. And probing deeper, I know what I would do with it. I would kill if need be. Don’t get it twisted. I do not fear guns, nor am I entirely estranged from them. Should I feel the need to defend my family, or myself I wouldn’t hesitate to cut the head of my enemy. However, I would much prefer not to be put in the situation where I have to choose to kill or maim.

 Gandhi once said

“It is better to be violent if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence”.

Lord knows I am not impotent; so don’t mistake my sentiments towards guns as weakness, for it is not. It is a knowing inside me, that these instruments do not lead to a path of happiness, of love, of true power or positive fulfillment. So then what is the answer in the wake of such recent public tragedy? Ban guns ?

If we ban guns, then they will go the way of the black market, and just like drugs and our attempt at alcohol prohibition, we will put all the guns in the hands of the police and the crooks. No. No. NO. I’m not comfortable with that idea. Think about it.

If we eventually eliminated all the  ‘crooks’ and only the police and military had guns, how would that make you feel?

                                                       I’m guessing that feeling we would collectively have is the cloak of impotence ole Gandhi was yammering about.

Guns and Ammo are a massive commanding industry, and like tobacco, fast food, prescription pills and other fellow merchants of death, they have an incredibly strong lobby presence in Washington, DC.  A triumph against such a formidable Goliath would be astounding. Lets say we the people get what we desire, and it is law that in order to purchase a hand gun or hunting rifle (lets presume we have a federal ban on assault weapons-that one should be a NO-BRAINER) you must prove through sophisticated and comprehensive verification processes that you aren’t psychotic and are not prone to criminal activity.

So then what?

Perhaps you are a mom who collects guns, living in Connecticut, and you purchase all your firearms legally and use them responsibly. However, your deranged son steals them from you and kills you and 26 innocent others, among them 20 beautiful helpless children.  Yeah, I don’t think that is fool proof either.

You, like me, have got to be appalled at the recent violence in Connecticut, just like we were when James Holmes shot up a Colorado movie theatre dressed like the joker, but are you shocked when this happens anymore?  I am not, and I haven’t been since 1999 when the Columbine massacre occurred. This is our collective fault. There are no laws that will have prevented this and there are no laws that will stop this from occurring again in the future. This is our sickness that we have developed as humans in American society.   We live in an age where the majority of 15-40 year old men, stand up and shout “oh that’s so GANGSTER” during the scene where Al Pacino murders the police captain in the Godfather trilogy. This is their reaction, and it is said with a longing idolizing pride, yet they are too fucking stupid to realize that this is where Michael Corleone signed his own death warrant. It’s a pivotal moment where his life becomes forever unfulfilled and the message is simply lost on so many of our generations.  This example may seem insignificant, but to me, it is telling in measuring the pulse of our nation and our sentiments towards violence.

We are a violent nation that was born of rebellion and bloodshed,

but that does not doom us to a cruel blood-spattered fate. There needs to be change from within.

The people will demand a change in the laws, and the slippery politicians will jump at a chance to join this sympathetic cause in an attempt to look like a champion of good will, but the savvy knew this ploy to garner votes would play out before this particular tragedy occurred – it’s just how our present political system works. Guileless talking heads and magazines will abound with details about the catastrophe. People will build careers and feed bank accounts off of this, so is their outrage genuine or self-serving?

We need to give pause and be measured in our response. A reactionary society literally invites, No, overzealously BEGS for a change, when they aren’t even sure what the right answer is.

Marcel Proust once stated :

“All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last”

There is a term for this, appropriately called “extinct by instinct”.  Which is exactly what it means: making a fatal decision based on an emotional gut reaction. I caution everyone in getting caught up in this.

Besides reforming the laws pertaining to one industry of death (guns and ammo), the people are in the streets clamoring for better mental health care. Better mental health care? Like what? More Prozac? The last 5 mass murderers have all been prescribed psychotropic drugs. Perhaps it is these drugs that help trigger the killing sprees?  I cannot say for certain either way, but here is my intuition on most prescription pills  : they are bad bad BAD and 95% of the people prescribed them don’t need them. You do not need a pill to escape the shackles of the mind. Please believe that. Regardless some type of reform for mental health care will also come, no doubt in a haphazard and misguided form.

But lets just pretend that we the people get all the gun control and health care laws we desire passed. Does this prevent mass murderers from existing?

Laws do not erase the tyranny in the hearts of evil men. Evil does not abide by laws. Should the next mass murderer not have guns available to him, he will simply build a bomb, commit arson, use a knife, etc etc. You might feel safer with better laws passed, and while I agree that gun control reform will slightly improve the situation, it will not solve it, and malevolent mass murderers will still have their way. Innocent children will still be butchered. I lived in Chicago for over 5 years, not far from some notorious projects. The city of Chicago has a ban on guns. Can someone tell me how that is working out for them? The blood in the streets is literally up to the peoples’ knees and rising fast, and faster.

So are we doomed? Are we a society that will continue to eat its own, until there is just nothing left?

NO.

I have an answer.

A lot of you will probably laugh.

You may dismiss it as the hazy notion of a liberal out of touch hippie (I am none of these things, although I do LOVE the Grateful Dead and have a certain affinity for hippie music).

It is so simple.

It has never been tried before.

It is just

                 LOVE.

And I am not talking about romantic love.

I am not speaking about Valentine’s Day.

I do not prattle on about this emotional gooey stuff.

I’m talking about compassion and tough love, a love that begins by honoring oneself, and our own lives. A demanding love, that once is in place in the individual, will have no choice but to spread to others. It will be contagious, like a brush fire in the thirsty Sonoran desert.  I believe the term is ‘unconditional love’. Yes, Love is the answer.

Poo-Pooing Me? Easier said than done?

I don’t believe we as a society have ever tried it. Not really.

“Faith is taking the first step, even when you can’t even see the staircase” –

 Dr. Martin Luther King.

We are all capable of love. Love doesn’t need fancy expensive educational systems. Love doesn’t need free health care. Love doesn’t need a car to get around or a house to live in. Love doesn’t discriminate from 1^st world to 3^rd world, from race to sexuality, religion or age.

I can’t help but think that people who use guns as intimidation or a means to kill or maim do so because they feel no power within themselves. From loving yourself, from honoring yourself comes that feeling of empowerment that pulsates through your body, a much more authentic and positive feeling than any gun can give.

We live in a society that dismisses love as soft. A society in which women have eschewed the powerful and necessary feminine energy because we are obsessed with the dominant controlling male energy. Where compassion in a male might be viewed as weak. Where we become more and more detached from reality and humanity and live in 3d violence on the silver screen. No doubt many of you have life like torture and killing in your HOMES in the form of violent video games. And yet, when a lonely unloved troubled youth kills 20 children, we act as if we are surprised that it occurred.

So love. Love yourself and all your imperfections. Do things that make you feel enriched and warm and full inside. Give for yourself and give of yourself. Don’t be a slave to the mind and the million tricks it plays upon you. Love unconditionally. Love proudly. Love loudly. Build Strong communities that nurture and look out for one another. If the majority of citizens of the United States did this, and did this honestly and purely, I don’t think we would need gun control reform. We would have collectively and institutionally changed.

“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love”  

-The Late Ever Great, Forever missed, but NEVER forgotten Dr. Martin Luther King JR

PS. You are a coward and a cheater if you think you need an assault rifle to hunt. I don’t care if you are hunting BigFoot.  You are basically the Alex Rodriguez of hunting. Muster whatever testicular fortitude you have and hunt like a man is supposed to – with a bow and arrow, cross bow or spear. The hunt will be ever more satisfying, I guarantee it.