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bemildred

(90,061 posts)
Mon Jun 2, 2014, 12:13 PM Jun 2014

Mass shooting sends us messages on gun control, misogyny and the pick-up culture

The appalling mass shooting by Elliot Rodger in California last week should be remembered first as a personal tragedy for the families whose loved ones were needlessly slaughtered. But it also demonstrated a miserable truth about contemporary discourse: too many ill-tempered reactionaries are incapable of grasping that a news story may be about more than one thing.

Within hours of the shooting, Richard Martinez, father to one of the victims, turned up to make a desperate – though still reasoned – plea for meaningful gun control. “Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA,” he said. “They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’s right to live? When will this insanity stop?”

The National Rifle Association initially kept its silence, but supporters of that unlovely body were quick to offer the usual useless rebuttals. We sympathise with Mr Martinez, they said. We understand his pain. But why are we blaming the gun laws rather than the young man who actually pulled the trigger? Isn’t this really about mental health?

One doesn’t need a PhD in advanced logic to negotiate a route around this empty argument. It is possible to hold Rodger responsible – or bemoan the sorry state of his addled brain – while still bemoaning the absurdly lax legislation that allowed him to wreak such appalling mayhem on the streets of Santa Barbara. This is not a zero-sum game.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/mass-shooting-sends-us-messages-on-gun-control-misogyny-and-the-pick-up-culture-1.1815465

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