Category Archives: guns

The Dangerous World of photographing Cactuses

2023 Grand Finale Tour, exotic flowers, guns

Argentine Giant Cactus

This was a crazy year in Arizona.  Our 3&1/2 months in Arizona were the coldest and wettest we  have experienced there.  We hung around the pool a lot less than we usually do and worst of all the cacti bloomed later than usual.  More than 2 weeks later in my opinion. Fortunately, we were staying 2 weeks longer than we often did or we might have seen almost none. That would have been catastrophic of course.

 

Thankfully there was the Boyce Thompson Arboretum where the cacti are so well tended they can’t wait to emerge.  Secondly, there was the Phoenix Botanical garden as well as the Tucson Botanical Garden again where tender loving care convinces the cacti it is save to come out of hiding.  Finally, there were private homes where some magnificent cacti bloomed early. But here there were dangers!

 

In the early morning I visited the pre-scouted cactus sites  on yards I have seen in the Johnson Ranch area where we had been living. I had picked out places I wanted to photograph.  Of course, I will not venture onto properties without permission. That is dangerous thing to do here.  Of course, walking up to doors as a stranger and asking to talk to the owners is also dangerous. A  number of people in the US this year have been shot dead for doing exactly that.

Although it was risk waking up to a strangers house unannounced I had some protection. I was not packing heat, but I had one good protective help—i.e. white skin. Most of the people shot were black skinned. That is almost suicidal. This is what happens in such a fearful country where so many of the people have guns. They shoot first and ask questions later. Who would want to take a chance on a stranger at the door?

 

Despair and Decline in the West

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Decline of the west, guns

 

Although I acknowledge that there is much that is worthwhile in western civilization including without limiting the generality of that statement, art, literature, music, a plethora of newly recognized human rights for members of the various LGBTQ* communities, and many others. So I am not arguing that we are going to hell in a handbasket. Everything is not getting worse.  However, we should not be complacent. There are also many areas where western civilization seems to be in serious decline. On our recent trip to Arizona, I resolved to pay attention to the decline. I have blogged on some of them, but there are many others that merit consideration. I want to continue that discussion.

There has been significant decline in the west, which many have not noticed, and perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in the self-declared leader of the west, namely, the United States of America. There are many indications of that decline and some are surprising.  Frankly, after spending nearly 4 months there earlier this year the situation is grim. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death of among young Americans. How is that possible? Why is it happening? Is has even surpassed death by overdoses.

Richard A. Friedman a psychiatrist writing in the New York Times put it this way in 2018,

“Teenagers and young adults in the United States are being ravaged by a mental health crisis — and we are doing nothing about it. As of 2017, statistics show that an alarming number of them are suffering from depression and dying by suicide. In fact, suicide is now the second leading cause of death among young people, surpassed only by accidents. 

After declining for nearly two decades, the suicide rate among Americans ages 10 to 24 jumped 56 percent between 2007 and 2017.”

 

Of course,  gun violence is now the leading cause of death of people under the age of 18 surpassing death by accidents and suicide is the second leading cause of deaths.  Is that much better? Gun violence and suicides are the leading cause of the death of young Americans!

And most people in the US are not aware of this. They seem blinded by their religious belief that America is the best country in the world. Is that possible with such stats?

What is going on in the United States?  Is this not a sign of civilizational decline?

Policing in a Broken Society

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Alienation, Decline of the west, Fear, guns, Hate, Mass killings, Police, violence

This past year in America 5 black  cops brutally killed a young black man for no apparent reason that has been revealed. Why did that happen?

Bill Maher was  right when he said on his television show earlier this year, “What’s going on, in my view, is that society is broken. We don’t educate people anymore, discipline is all broken down, families are broken down.” I agree this is a product of a broken society and then we ask the police to solve it.  Among all the other jobs they have to deal with they are expected to hold society together as it is shredded.  They are being asked to be psychologists, marriage counsellors, social workers advocates. As Bill Maher said, “No one ever calls the cops to tell them how well the marriage is going.” It is what I always said about schools. The principal never called us ot a team meeting to tell us how well the lads were doing in school.

How could that possibly work? Trust is gone. Guns sluice through American society. That doesn’t help. Violence is bred in the bone, particularly in America. What can the police do to mend this mess? As Bill Maher said, “They are the ones who get the slop of a broken society.”  And then they are asked to do far too much. And sometimes they contribute to it.

Yet, of course, the cops are also part of that broken society. Why those 5 black cops did what they did may always remain a mystery.  They just did it.   The cops perhaps were going through a divorce, or under pressure from their landlord to pay the rent, or their kids are trying drugs and disrespect their parents. What can the cops do about that?  They can break is about all they can do under impossible conditions.

There is a bigger question: where is all the rage coming from?  This is a vitally important question without any apparent answers. The rage is clearly out there, but where did it come from? The police like the rest of us are suffering from anxiety and fear. Every day they drive into harm’s way as part of their jobs.  The cops live in a society transfused with fear, anxiety, depression, and above all hate. It is a toxic mess that no Sunday School can cure.

Of course, we must always remember that a very high percentage of cops don’t resort to killing people out of frustration.  Most of them are just trying to do an honourable job as best they can.  Yet we must not accept it when they don’t do their best or abuse the trust given to them. Society is entitled to their best. Also, we must not be surprised when the police abuse the trust and fall short. It is going to happen. A broken society cannot deliver a perfect result. Fear, anxiety, depression and hate will never produce perfection. We will never get perfect policing until we get a perfect society, at which time we won’t need the police.

As Brett Stephens also said on Maher’s show, “Every day a cop in America is shot and killed. And police deserve a lot more respect than they get.”[2]

 I do not want to be taken to be giving in to fatalism. We must insist police do a better job. We must give them the support and respect they deserve, but not blind automatic acceptance of all they do.

 The real issue about cops is the same as the real issue of guns.  It is not inadequate laws that are the problem.  The real problem is the incredible rage in American society. In many ways it is a broken society. And that means that when the pieces of glass fly, people will get hurt. The rage let loose in a broken society is going to hurt someone. Whoever is in the way will get hurt. Police and guns just happen to be right on the edge of the tears in society. And we just have to look out.

Why so much rage?

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Decline of the west, guns, Hate, Mass killings

 

While we were in Arizona this year, before the end of January, there had been 39 mass shootings in the US.  People keep talking about better gun laws (as they should) but really there is a much bigger issue. The bigger issue is why is there so much rage in the country, particularly among young men? The mass shootings are overwhelmingly committed by angry young men. That is a very big question. And there is no simple answer but there are many plausible answers.

The gunman killed 11 people and injured another 9. After the shooting there was a lot of hand wringing and  surprise in the California community.  Their local State Senator said Monterey was “a close-knit community” and “a great place to raise children.”  Really? This is what they call a close-knit community in the US? California has the lowest gunfire mortality in the US probably because it has the strictest gun laws. Yet even in California there is a mass shooting every 8 days! Compared to communities around the world those “strict” gun laws are among the weakest! That’s how Americans like it. They want weak gun laws.

But I am actually more interested in a deeper question: why is there so much rage in America?  We have rage in Canada too but nothing like the US. What is driving young men to such violent fury? It seems to me that this question gets less attention than it should.

Adam Winkler, a professor of law at UCLA said “we can’t stop people from getting angry, but we can make it a little bit harder to get guns when they are in a passionate state.” That is a good idea, but why give up on trying to reduce the rage?  What makes him think that is hopeless? Has anyone actually tried it?

This is the issue the country should be dealing with.  The gun law debate in the US is frankly sterile. Nothing of substance happens. No one, it seems to me, is looking at the issue of that desperate anger. That is the problem Americans need to resolve. Until they do, no one can intelligibly deny that America, the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, is a country in serious decline. In Canada one of our major political parties is determined to follow America. Would that be wise? That rage seems to be coming our way. We should not amplify it.

 

 

Resentment Rarely explodes in a rational manner

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Decline of the west, Extremism, guns, Hate, Mass killings, terrorism, violence

 

While we were in Arizona, a man in Utah killed his wife and 5 children because she filed for divorce?  Why?

Just like an economic bubble does not deflate in an orderly fashion., so my theory is that when resentment explodes it does not do so in a rational manner.  This is like the irrational hatred of the Ste. Anne Manitoba dairy farmer who a few years ago burned his farm to the ground including his cattle, after he could not settle his divorce with his wife as he would have liked. If he couldn’t have the farm no one else could either. Isn’t that what the new world disorder is all about?

Like a balloon rarely deflates in an orderly fashion, so resentment rarely explodes in a rational manner. That’s why resentment is so dangerous. This is particularly significant to the most dangerous people on the planet—young men. Jihadis and other extremist groups have learned how important young men are to their cause. That is why they work so hard to radicalize them. Many of the lone wolf killers that are so common are young men filled with resentment. Many of them live in a cauldron of hate.   The jihadis then take advantage of the resentment for their own purposes.

When society is in decline. resentment is amplified.

And they make us pay a hefty price.

 

Where guns are sacred and Kids not so Much

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Decline of the west, guns

 

I love the United States. It is an endlessly fascinating country, but not always in a good way.

In Phoenix this month, a very young child found a loaded gun in his apartment belonging to his parents, played with it, and accidentally shot himself. Fortunately, the child did not die as a result. That child was lucky.

Earlier this month in Newport News, Virginia, a 6-year-old student was able to access a loaded handgun, bring it into school and intentionally shot his first-grade teacher.

On PBS television News which we watched every day here in Arizona,  I heard a woman explain how her 6-year-old daughter who really liked that teacher who advocated for her, was terrified by the incident. It not only the direct victims of gun violence that are affected. The effects radiate through the schools or other places of violence.

In the United State where we now live for 3 months, gunshot wounds are now the leading cause of death for children under the age of 18 years! I find that astounding. It tells me a lot about the society in which we are now living.

According to Josh Sugarmann the Executive Director of the Violence Policy Center at the federal level there are no federal standards about the safe storage of fire arms. Standards in states of course vary widely. A 2018 survey that indicated roughly 4.5 million minors in America live in a household with an unlocked loaded firearm.

This is despite the fact that there has been a tremendous increase in fire power among Americans. Currently, there are 20 million AR-15s in the country belonging to private citizens. Yet around the country children are continuing to die from gunshot wounds.

There are also rising numbers of suicides by guns in America. I know it can happen anywhere. It actually happened in Steinbach. But the numbers in our country are dwarfed by the per capita numbers in this country.  Sugarmann also said, “But, having said that, one of the most important things to note is that, when you talk to the experts regarding child safety, the most important thing you can do if you have a child is not have a gun in the home. All too often, we think that, as parents, as guardians, you can safely secure the gun and the child will never find it. Unfortunately, we know all too often that that is untrue”.

William Brangham, a PBS reporter said this to Sugarmann on a related issue:

“… you have documented quite clearly how the gun industry is targeting children as potential customers. And I saw this flyer that I want to put up. This is a flyer for what’s called the JR-15. It’s a kid-sized gun styled after the AR-15. The original tagline for this gun says: “Looks, feels and operates just like mom and dad’s gun.” And the logo is this skull and crossbones with a baby’s pacifier in its mouth.”

 

 Sugarmann said the firearms industry was actually copying what the tobacco industry did when it started to lose customers. It upped the anti. They started to target women, members of minority groups, and now children. And they do it with what Sugarmann called “grotesque graphics.” When people complained they toned down the ads, but they continued to market guns to children. Is that not grotesque enough? As Sugarmann said, they mad a gentler to their approach to the marketing, but still, “the bottom line, they’re marketing a junior AR-15 to children.”

Some say, that for Americans, guns are more important than children. Guns are sacred; kids not so much.  How do you deny that in the fact of such evidence?

And who can deny that such a wonderful country is in serious decline?

 

Why are so many Americans killing other Americans?

Decline of the west, Extinction, guns, Hate, violence

 

I did not want to interrupt my series of post on the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but I must.

We have been in the United States for 3 weeks now and I find this magnificent country incomprehensible. Mainly because some of the people who live here. Not all, but many.

Yesterday we learned of another Mass killing.  We have not yet got all the news of the mass killing that happened a few ays ago in California. Now we have one more mass killing to consider. Last week the murderer in California killed 11 people. The number was upsized today when one of the victims who had been in the hospital died. Yesterday as were told “at least 7 died” of gunshot wounds.

Forget about the guns, let’s just consider why do so many Americans want to kill other Americans they don’t even know personally? Why do so many Americans want to kill complete strangers? To me that seems incomprehensible.

We also learned that in another killing that might not qualify as a “mass killing” 2 students were shot and killed and another is in critical condition in the hospital. How can CNN keep up with the killings? I have a hard time telling them apart. One mass killing melts into the next one.

Yesterday State Senator Josh Becker said the community where this happened was “a close-knit community” and they will be in shock. Is that what close knit now means?

 

CNN reported  that there have been 38 mass killings in the 3 weeks we have been in the US. Laura Coates a CNN commentator and TV host said “now the front-line is everywhere.”

 

Later she said, if the front line is everywhere “we are all stakeholders.” That can’t be anything but true. But does it matter? Who cares? After all it’s just one more killing.

Here is the real question? Where is all this hate coming from?  And it arises even in “close-knit” communities. How is that possible? What does that mean?

 

Patriot or Martyr

criminal Justice, Extremism, guns, Polarization, Rebellion and Resistance, Vigilantism, violence

 

I understand that the jury has still not rendered its verdict in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse and will resume deliberations tomorrow.  Yesterday I posted about why I thought there was a good chance he would be acquitted and made a hero.  Today I want to talk about the less likely  chance that he will be convicted and made a martyr. If he is a patriot for his actions as his supporters allege and many on the right believe to be the case, then if he is convicted  he will be hailed as a martyr. Which is it?

Personally, I don’t think a young man who travels from out of state carrying an automatic AR-15 style rifle  to an area of heated dispute   that some call riots and others protests, depending on which side of the great divide in America (and Canada) they lie, is a hero so should not be welcomed as a hero if successful  or a martyr if not.  Instead, he was a foolish young man who took a dangerous chance while endangering the lives of many others that led in fact to the deaths of 2 Americans while injuring a third.  He was not trained for this job and took it upon himself as a vigilante to “help” the police to do their job. He made things much worse as the trail of devastation behind him made clear. It is part of their belief that “the system” cannot be trusted and only private vigilantes or warriors can be trusted.

I realize that many young American men have been raised in the Marvel FantasyLand where such actions are encouraged. They think they can stand up to the evils of a corrupt or inept system that fails to protect American citizens.

Rittenhouse should not be valorized. He was hardly a peacemaker. No one should encourage other young American men (and they are largely men who do this) to take such foolhardy and dangerous actions. Such actions are not helpful. They are pouring fuel onto an already raging fire.

Rittenhouse may or may not be guilty of murder or the other crimes he was charged with, but he is neither a hero nor a martyr.  And he might be much worse.