Society Reacts Helplessly to the Latest Gun Homicide

Many of our national leaders have sought to convince us that the greatest threat we face in our daily lives is from Muslim extremists that hate our way of life and are driven to kill us.  Time and time again, though, we find that our most significant peril is from domestic terrorists who walk among us in our neighborhoods every day.

Although it was an isolated incident, thankfully, the gun-toting killer of his estranged wife in a prominent section of South Strabane is the latest example of the credo of, "If I can't have her, nobody will.  I will kill her and her boyfriend and then myself as I have been disrespected" (The gunman succeeded in killing his target and wounding the boyfriend in this latest horror).  

The suicidal and deranged lover in such triangles is usually not satisfied to merely take his own life.  He somehow derives satisfaction in his final moments from inflicting additional pain, avenging his humiliation by violently destroying more lives.  His task, of course, is made easy by the gun culture, the belief that anyone is trusted to amass however large an arsenal of lethal weapons that they wish, which provide them the ability to mow down their helpless victims in rapid fire before turning the gun on themselves.

There are multiple reasons that the rate of gun homicide is high in the United States, why ours is one of the most violent nations in the world: mental illness, including those who are unable to cope with the challenges of life, and who "snap" under stressful situations, a coarse and violent "entertainment" world, the breakdown of the family, and the enthusiasm that we have for guns.  We are not meaningfully addressing the roots of our challenges.

The National Rifle Association, the gun manufacturers' lobby, tells us that we need more "good guys with guns".  The problem is how to determine who is a "good guy" and when the "good guy" will come a "bad guy" as occurred in South Strabane.  Once in a while, the "good guy" concept triumphs as it did in a recent incident in Lincoln Place when a homeowner used his gun to kill a burglar that had fired upon him.  Far more common than guns as a positive force, though, are those incidents in which they are used to perpetrate evil against innocent people.

It would appear to be a good time to invest in weapons manufacturers and funeral homes.