Voice and Vision

One Woman's WORDS AND WORKS •grapple •inspire •liberate

67: A Nation of Guns and Insanity

The Supreme Court has done it again. Taking away women’s reproductive rights was bad enough, but now letting citizens carry guns in public without a license–less than a month after the Buffalo grocery store shooting and Uvalde school massacre–is pure insanity!

Do you know that the U.S has more guns than any other nation? 400 million guns! 81.4 million Americans have guns, about 44 % of all households. 393 million guns are owned by civilians, not counting police or military guns. We are a nation of more guns than citizens! 120 guns per 100 citizens!

Why?

Why is killing so important? What or who are Americans so afraid of that they need hundreds of millions of guns? Why do they feel so nervous, angry, unsafe, unless they are packing arms wherever they go?–as the new Supreme Court law now allows them to do without a license.

According to the Pew Research Center, guns are especially essential to white Evangelicals who are more likely than members of other faith groups, or the average citizen, to own a gun–41% compared to 30 % of other Americans. 65% of Evangelicals carry their guns everywhere, including to church. They claim it makes them feel safer if they are prepared to kill. Apparently, the biblical commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” doesn’t matter to Evangelicals.

Studies show that church shootings, such as the recent one in Alabama, are not caused by religious disagreements but by domestic disputes. In fact, two-thirds of all mass shootings stem from domestic violence. If homes are filled with so much hate that shootings are the result, how effective is the practice of Christianity among professed Christians?  Wouldn’t actually living the teachings of Christ be a better preventative, a sure protection, than toting guns everywhere?

 Another claim by gun-owners is that hunting is a legitimate sport; they’re entitled to kill. Sitting in a protected blind with a buddy, a few beers and sandwiches, waiting for a deer to come into range so you can pull the trigger on your AR-15 (do you really need an assault weapon to kill a deer?!), kill her, explode her insides, liquify her organs–doesn’t that sound like a fun sport?! Better than badminton. And makes for a nice venison dinner to boot (how do you serve blasted tissues?)

I had a son-in-law who was an avid hunter; he and his family ate every bit of edible deer meat he shot. What’s the difference between killing deer for food and slaughtering steer or pig for barbecue?  I’m not sure I know. I work toward becoming a vegetarian by sticking mostly to organic veggies, fish and chicken. I’ve seen the sad-eyed Bambies running through the forest and I’m pretty sure they don’t yearn to be on anyone’s dinner table. But this is another topic for another posting!

Seems to me sport-killing–or mass murder, for that matter–is about ego. Being able to say after the kill: “Look what I did!” One cocky male out-doing another. 98% of mass murderers are male and only 20% of hunters are women. For his glory and self-importance, a hunter ends the life of a beautiful creature that roamed woods and brooks with grace and intelligence.

Why do men have the right to shoot and kill living, thinking adult animals? But a woman, once inserted with a man’s sperm, has no right to choose what’s best for her body, health, and family? Apparently to the supreme court a microscopic clump of human embryonic cells without brain, sentience, consciousness, or nervous system, is more important than a woman–a living, intelligent, human being, whose hardships, suffering, and potential death under pregnancy (The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country and it is doubling) are ignored.

As my husband so aptly put it the day Roe vs Wade was shot down:  “According to the Supreme Court, guns have rights, women don’t.”

Along the Delaware, pastel, framed, approx. 28" x 22," sold. By Gwendolyn Evans

Along the Delaware, pastel, framed, approx. 28″ x 22,” sold, by Gwendolyn Evans.

ArtworkAlong the Delaware, pastel, framed, approx. 28″ x 22,” sold. Living along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania we found many trails for good walks and hiking. Some the deer enjoyed too.

Next Post

Previous Post

© 2024 Voice and Vision

Theme by Anders Norén