Just could not digest the news anymore. Just could not get that question out of my wretched mind the entire day after hearing about the shooting at an elementary school in Newtown.
Whichever way you want to describe this senseless act, the words fall short of the true overwhelming emotions that I went through. I am sure that I am not alone in this. But unless we go through with this to get to the root cause of this evil visiting a small town in USA, these horrific crimes on one end of the scale and real tragedies on the other end will see no end however isolated we consider them, or even if we consider them as new normal. My question however is: But why? Why should we consider them like that and accept them the way it is described?
As soon as I went down this path of questioning, the only way I could get this out of my mind was to look at what makes everyone unite when a such tragedy occur, but fail to unite to provide a solution. Why there is such a big lull after that? With so many problem solving techniques that consultants propose and make millions out of, why don’t they jump into the fray to provide a solution that works for people on both sides of the fence? Or should we say that they just know how to solve an industry related issues, but not the troubling issues that are considered political?
To my utter dismay, I find such an apathy towards major problems continue to plague not only the developed nations, but almost all other nations in the world. The urgency of the situation in US is quite different and is most dire because of the nature of the gun control laws that exist as of today. They don’t seem to work for the current landscape of the world or to the connected world that we are living in today. They need to be reworked to make it meaningful again. But what kind of leadership will bring this issue to the table and solve it and then implement it?
Even if we find such a leader, it will be difficult to make anything implementable, unless the guns are viewed as weapons that exist to kill in a hurry. It gives neither the shooter nor the victim some buffering time to cool down or to escape from the moment or the situation. This weapon is singularly unique in this aspect when compared to the other types of weapons. The nature of guns have changed in terms of range, power and capacity, but not the controls. Every fundamental things about guns and gun controls need to be looked into from a newer perspective to rework them in such a way that it does not take away the innocent lives that we value most. There is no such thing as an universal gun control and we can’t expect that to work for every specified situation or meet the demands of the changing world or cover the type of guns used for recreational purposes or otherwise.
While it can be considered as a national debate, the change has to come from the grass root levels. It may come in pockets as dots, but when attempts are made to connect those dots to let a picture emerge, it will show everyone concerned that people are not the killers, but weapons which don’t give time to those at either end of the weapon are the real killers.
The kind profiling we do in recent days on shooters at public places, whether it is at a school or at any such places we consider safe, is new in its approach, but comes up short on its findings for a real solution. For centuries we have been living with all sorts of people, but what has really changed in the 21st century living is the nature of those weapons. Till the days of guns, we can be comfortable in saying that it took more time to do the same amount of damage that we see happening nowadays and within matter of seconds or minutes.
We keep hearing people going berserk at public places, but the amount of damage that a knife wielding person can do to a gun cracking person differs enormously. We all need to wake up to this understanding and realize that the problems that others face are our own and do something about it to change the current scenario rather than to accept it as new normal.
It has happened so many times this year, the wisdom of it tells us to stop looking at them as isolated events. We need self-awareness coupled with direction from the top, the education at peer levels and of course a persistent effort to help the cause.
Every time we face with this question, ‘But Why’, can we at least start little things in motion to let it flow outward in an effort to stop such horrific things happening again?