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Guns Are Tools for the Afflicted Swimming in an Environment of Criminality Printer friendly page Print This
By Dallas Darling
Submitted by Author
Tuesday, May 22, 2018

“It’s been happening everywhere, I’ve always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too.”
- Paige Curry,
Survivor of Santa Fe School Shooting

There’s no limit to the finger pointing and blame over last Friday’s Santa Fe school shooting. While some argued guns should be branded as instruments of death, others saw them as the ultimate expression of freedom. Dana Loesch, National Rifle Association’s spokesperson, accused the media of creating mass shooting monsters by the extensive coverage of suspects following incidents of attacks. And then there were those who blamed a society filled with violent video games that desensitizes young people, rewarding killers with little consequences or repercussions even if it is only virtual.

But what if the answer is somewhere in between. What if guns aren’t the disease but a tool in the hands of the afflicted, or those already suffering from emotional and mental distresses, and who find themselves swimming in a society of criminality? And what if we’ve actually become accustomed to a new kind of criminality? The suspect did after all seem troubled, living in a troubled society. Friends still in shock said he was polite and quiet, interested in sports and church. And yet, he idolized Adolf Hitler and wore shirts saying “Born to Kill.” He was moreover bullied by other students and coaches.

Nature’s Violence Always Nurtures the Violent
Environmental criminologists now think that people don’t necessarily commit crimes due to intrinsic factors like poverty or instability, but because of their accessibility. Given the troubled psychological states of many adolescents, it would appear that a culture saturated with guns and a steady diet of media and video-game violence would have a major impact. It’s also plausible the continued immersion into a gun-oriented culture in which guns are easily accessible would invite more gun violence. Together with the frequency and normalization of a location, it wouldn’t take much to summon the nerve to attack.

Another thing to consider is how many times a person sees a gun each day. Go into any Walmart and Target or sporting goods store and there’ll be large displays of handguns and rifles. Since the start of the Global War On Terror, images of guns and their totemism have become even more common and mystical in pop culture, the movies, magazines, and Internet. Neither can the veneration of Special Forces snipers and their weapons, along with the more deadlier kinds of military hardware such as fighter jets and missiles, be ignored. There’s the everyday language of violence and guns to consider as well.

Internalizing Social Norms and Beyond

As if the criminality of all this wasn’t enough to have a major impact on adolescents, Thorstein Veblen’s classic observation warned that delinquents conform to the norms of conventional society’s business and political sectors, rather than deviate from them. In other words, delinquents also place a desire on “big money” and “power” in their value system. They moreover embody the wealth-motivated, sometimes cut-throat competition, and entrepreneurial traditions in American society, all of which encourages adventure, excitement, thrill seeking, and ambivalence to authorities or the rule of law.

The convergences between delinquency and conventional political and business norms do not simply take only mild or material forms. In fact, environmental criminologists say that any dominant society which exhibit’s a widespread taste for violence, in that fantasies of violence in books, magazines, movies, television, and the Internet are everywhere at hand, and which makes guns easily accessible and attainable, will create an explosive situation. The delinquent will simply translate into behavior those same values that the majority are usually too timid to express-or hesitant to criminalize in the first place.

Drowning in Cultural Criminality
Over time, minds and emotions that are afflicted or in the developmental stages may also be plagued with nascent ideas towards violence. Environmental criminologists say this is especially true when immersed in the many deviance service centers across America. Due to the flight of social capital, these centers are social locations where activities otherwise defined as illegal are allowed to develop and fester to serve a clientele from within and outside the community. They’re moreover driven by inventing and cultivating markets-whether it be illegal substance and alcohol or the amorality of a gun industry and war.

Such nascent ideas can even become a “fixed opportunity” that repeatedly presents itself. No wonder, then, that it’s safer today to be a U.S. soldier than a student.(1) Indeed, the dimensions of America’s crime problem-including school shootings-are staggering. Not only do violent crime rates and imprisonment far exceed those of other Western industrial nations, but they quadruple that of Canada. Environmental criminologists consequently think it’s time to consider social behaviors that range from being regarded as social diversions and deviations to conflict and consensus crimes.

The Changing Face of Crime That’s in the Mirror
Given that crime itself changes in measure and meaning over time, it may be time to consider how guns are tools for the afflicted swimming-and sometimes the drowning-in an environment of criminality. Surely, this has to include certain criminal aspects of our culture that we unfortunately think are acceptable.

 

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and  www.WN.com/dallasdarling.

(1) www.axisoflogic.com. “More American Kids Killed at School in 2018 Than US Military Service Members,” by Sputnik staff writers. May 19, 2018.


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