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Another take on Gun Violence in America [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-10-26  

Another Take on Gun Violence in America

Human beings are at their best in a crisis. A child falls down a well and the entire community mobilizes. Families come together and make food for the workers. Engineers are brought in from all over the country. Men and women work night and day. Earth moving and tunneling equipment is lent free of charge. And if by some miracle the child is saved we all have a cathartic moment while we reflect upon “that could have been my child” and how lucky we are that there are so many good people in our community. We saw this happen in Huston and again in Florida and again in Puerto Rico. So how is (fill in the latest mass shooting) different?

(Fill in latest mass shooting) is different because it was not a Natural Disaster. Unlike Harvey or Maria the (fill in latest mass shooting) could have been easily prevented. And all I can think about is that despite Sandy Hook or San Bernardino or the Balko Baptist Church or the Pulse Night Club NOTHING IS EVER DONE about Gun Violence.

There is a type of person who represents all the things we see that is brought out during a natural disaster. Focused on the victim as well the victim’s family they encourage an outpouring of sympathy by the community as well as best wishes from friend and family. A burning desire to solve the problem, find a cure, comfort the ill, hold prayer meetings, have moments of silence, set up memorials, raise money, everything or anything that could be done to focus attention on that person and their terrible plight.

The only problem is that in order for all this to happen, in the case of the person I’m talking about, someone has to get sick. And if there is no one sick in this person’s family our deeply caring person makes someone sick. This mental illness is called “Muchausen Syndrome by Proxy”. It is usually a Mother who makes a child sick by poison so they can experience this deep terrible need to belong to and be nurtured by a community of caring friends and family. It is easily overlooked because we can’t imagine a Mother harming her own child.

When we set up an environment that not only encourages but aids people to commit these terrible acts of gun violence by ignoring the most basic common sense we are not only complicit in the act but must bear collectively the responsibility for it.

So what do we do after such heinous acts? We gather sympathy from the community and friends. We have prayer vigils and moments of silence and candle lit memorials. The President reads prepared speeches about unity in crisis and quotes Scripture. The Television is filled with stories about how wonderful we all are in times of crisis and highlight people who especially shine in our hearts. We stay glued to the TV trying to garner any little tidbit we can find.

Collectively as a Nation are we exhibiting a particularly nasty mental illness? Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is the only explanation I can see that explains why after every gun tragedy we do absolutely nothing. Do we allow gun violence to happen so we can feel good about ourselves?

Perhaps we should seek some help.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/26/2201769/-Another-take-on-Gun-Violence-in-America?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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