Mondays remind us that the news never stops. Weekends are filled with diversions like the new Bond film or the fortunes of football. However, they are all too often accompanied by inevitable gun violence among the less sunny news. To this I say, what is the number that we need to arrive at before we agree that people possessing guns have reached the tipping point, that point where something needs to change or accept the consequences of inaction?
While it is entertaining to see 007 take out the bad guys (and an occasional bad girl), when it comes to some dude getting mad at a birthday party and opening fire or some ill-adjusted psychopath gunning down a church full of people, it is not good for society. But add to that the well-meaning vigilante with a side piece shooting arriving late to the party and shooting an innocent bystander or himself, the injuries add up. And, if you want to be sobered up further, take into account the accidental shootings that occur due to childish curiosity, accidental discharges, and so on. There are many statistics to bear out that violence is worse and likely to continue going in that direction.
We are doomed to repeat history, it is said. For more and more people, a time to die is not just a movie title, it is what happens to them in their own homes, on their streets, and in their schools.
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