Guns, Guns, Guns...

"The only thing to fear is fear itself."  - President Franklin D. Roosevelt

With each tragic shooting in America comes the obligatory debate:  Pro-Gun vs. No-Gun. The Pro-Gun advocates want better mental health efforts to keep guns out of the hands of “crazies.”  No-Gun people want more effective background checks and no-gun zones. (Those in the middle simply throw up their hands in frustration.) The debate inevitably dies out within days, if not weeks, of the shooting. It rears its head with the next incident, only to suffer the same fate…over and over – a thousand deaths. 

There is only one answer to gun violence in America:  Raise our children better. That is not so difficult as we think. Taking more time with your child is infinitely easier (and more fun) than taking guns off the streets. Engendering a child with a sense of discipline and respect is far more sensible than trying to determine who can be trusted with a gun, and who cannot. 

The presence of guns in our society reflects, more than anything, the presence of fear in our lives. When a policeman shoots an unarmed black man, the first words out of his mouth are, “I felt threatened.” Let’s just say, “We all feel threatened.”  Passing out guns will not help. The only thing that will dissipate this ever-more-threatening cloud over our lives is courage. 

It isn’t about background checks; neither is it about throwing up our hands in despair. It is about sacrifice you selfish, selfish adults. Sacrifice.

If grown-ups were not so busy celebrating themselves, and seeking to expand their sex lives with enlargements and Viagra, they would have plenty of time to spend with their children – time to instill in them a sense of responsibility, of purpose, and of being loved. Time like that comprise the main elements of self-confidence, which is the only antidote against fear.