Letter writer Bruce Peterson seems to believe that relatively recent "moral decay" is at the root of America's gun violence scourge. I would submit that America's moral decay is nothing new. Mark Twain's “Huckleberry Finn” was a book about the moral decay of America's racism. It was published in 1884.
Mr. Peterson attributes our society's ills to wayward and lax parenting and nefarious modern influences such as video games, smartphones, etc. In every other democratic country in the world, young people deal with the same influences as American kids, yet the level of gun violence in those nations is a tiny fraction of ours. Why is that? Could it be that this country is so awash with weaponry it is inevitable some of it will find its way into the hands of the unstable?
To read his letter is to conclude that all the gun violence in America is committed by young people. It is not. It is committed by unstable people of all ages with easy access to high powered, lethal weaponry that gun manufacturers and their marketing accomplices, the NRA, foist onto a gullible and fearful American public. Their single goal is to profit from the sale of ever more lethal weapons. They are like the tobacco companies. Amoral merchants of death.
This has come to be about more than the Second Amendment. This is about turning America into a raving gun culture where everyone is locked and loaded. Everyone is open-carrying and packing heat. Like smoking was at one time “cool,” the gun promoters would like Americans to believe being holstered up in public is cool.
When Australia and New Zealand each experienced a horrific mass shooting they changed their gun laws. In both countries, people turned in their guns to the government. They said they did that “for the good of the country.” As far as I know, they are both still free, democratic countries. I would not expect Americans to do that. Guns will diminish in America when they become, like cigarettes, very uncool.
So you have the estimable Republican congresswoman from Colorado, Lauren Boebert, suggesting that had Jesus been heavily armed he would not have suffered crucifixion by the Roman government. She entirely misses the point of Jesus' life and death. She typifies the brain rot of many so-called Christians and gun advocates. “Alcohol, tobacco and firearms,” she recently stated on the floor of the House of Representatives. “Where I come from in Colorado, that's called a fun weekend.” If Mr. Peterson is looking for “moral decay” he need look no further than the MAGA fools like Rep. Boebert.
But then isn't Donald Trump, the leader of the MAGA party, the perfect embodiment of every element of moral decay? Thieving, womanizing, fraudulent businessman/grifter, phony Christian, phony patriot, pathological liar and narcissistic sociopath Trump checks every rotten box. So is Bruce Peterson denouncing Donald Trump?
Marty Ansley
Cinebar
