Means to Ends

In Kongsberg, Norway, a man has killed five people and wounded two others with a bow. This has the potential to become a big story over on this side of the Atlantic, as part of our ongoing "debate" about gun control. Which is a shame, because I suspect that political opportunism involved will leave little room for giving a rip about the dead and injured.

And for me, it becomes another bit of evidence that perhaps the focus on firearms is misplaced. While Americans tend to associate guns (especially semi-automatic rifles) with violence, the fact of the matter is that there are any number of things that one can use to injure or kill another human being. And in the end, it's not possible to ban them all. And a lot of the violence in the United States is one-on-one; two people getting into a fight that escalates, or a man (usually) attacking his partner for some or another reason. While episodes of mass violence perpetrated against strangers make the headlines, because they convince people that something bad could happen to them at any time, in any place such that nowhere is "safe," the fact of the matter is that they are the exception, rather than the rule.

What really needs to change is the general idea that violence is a workable solution to problems. Some guy on your turf who doesn't belong there? Violence will take care of it. Your partner not living up to whatever random standards you've set? Violence will sort them out. The local school board not on board with your preferred teaching methods? Send death threats via text or e-mail. These are all commonplace activities. And sure, a lot of people hide the fact that they've engaged in this sort of behavior, because it tends to come with jail sentences, but I'm not sure that it comes with the level of social disapproval that it should. Because there are people who will stand up in support of all of these activities. And that support buttresses people against the disapproval of the broader society.

Putting the blame on the tools for causing injury is easy. Making the broader social changes to reduce the support for violence as a method of problem solving is extremely difficult. But I don't know if that validates what sometimes seems like a complete disinterest in doing the work.