Guns in the U.S.?

Guns have always been a part of life in the U.S. more than other countries. Part of it is they have always been a symbol of our freedom and that we always have had civilian militias of one kind or another. In the past we were a more stable and disciplined country than we are now for a variety of reasons. It is not that we want to go back but progress has also brought many chaotic and not useful changes to America and to the world in general.

What is causing mass murders is a change in people, it is not a change in guns. If you outlawed all guns owned by the public there likely would be even more murders than now because criminals would still own guns and be able to go into any house and steal and kill and rape people without fear.

So, understanding that the change is fundamental to the more chaotic nature of growing up in the U.S. might be one of the most useful things to say. I think the breakdown in families might be one of the biggest things that causes this problem.

In the past, families took care of each other better when I was growing up. People were much more likely to stay together in marriages even if they were miserable doing it. But, often children were more there with both their parents, their grandparents and aunts and uncles. With a support system people didn't "fall through the cracks" like often they do now more and more. With more children growing up as "Latch Key kids" who have to come home alone to an apartment after having been beat up one or more times by bullies on the way to homes where no one is there to protect them, you start to get why people more often than in the past grow up very confused and very unsure of who they are or what they are about. Children like this often escape into violent video games as a way to mask their terror and confusion.

Though people often don't go to church as much as they did before, this might be both better and worse for society at the same time. By not going to church these children won't be molested by people within a church, but they might be vulnerable to other people in their lives especially  children who are latch key or homeless children.

And children who are homeless molested or beat up or psychologically abused kids now are more likely to be the mass murderers of tomorrow because of not being properly protected from physical and psychological abuse. So, for example, the last 5 years or so is creating many more mass murderers potentially than anything since the Great Depression and World War II.

Is there a solution to this problem? I have defined what I feel is a part of the problem. Because society has "Thrown the baby out with the bathwater" since the 1950s and 1960s I'm not sure how anyone is going to put the baby back. So, for now, the best I can do is to define parts of the problem that I can see which are obvious to me after living 64 years now.

Maybe a beginning would be to value the needs of children over the individual needs of adults. Unless children and their real needs are valued more than they are now, civilization might be eventually doomed by the selfishness of adults in general. Because by not raising children right we doom children to failure as adult human beings and we also potentially doom civilization as well because the children of today are the adults of tomorrow and who will be taking care of everyone in their later years potentially, if they survive that long.