“I don’t know what it is with Americans and guns,” I answered. “But my honest desire is that all guns in the hands of private citizens be made illegal.” She nodded in agreement.
“For everybody but me.” The agreement was short-lived. And though I agreed that America was sick with a sickness — can you imagine what would have happened if Adam Lanza had raped 20 preschoolers instead of shooting them to death? It would have stopped any “yeah, but” debate dead — I still clung to the fact that in the end I don’t believe guns made the slightest difference.
You see, it’s the mind that pulls the trigger. And I’ve watched Americans plow their cars into crowds. Blow up buildings with children in them. And shove people on subway tracks. For any and many reasons, none of which really make sense in the long view.
So, in the end I guess I agree with Pogo who had once famously said that he had met the enemy and “he is us.”
America has become one big abattoir and how and why we got that way seems so much less important than why we stay that way.
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