“Something is wrong in America when fellow citizens use firearms to settle differences,” toledoblade.com opines. “Something is wrong when so many families are forced to grieve the senseless loss of a loved one lost to gun violence — especially when this violence is the result of a disagreement that could and should have been worked out peacefully.” What about the violence that isn’t the result of a disagreement that could and should have been worked out peacefully?”

desantis blue logo no back 4 smallWhile The Blade profers three examples of firearms-related homicides that don’t involve suicide or gang activity, the vast majority of firearms-related fatalities fall into those two categories. The Editorial Board reckons that “Gun violence is a policy problem, a public health and safety crisis, and a sign of cultural and spiritual unraveling.”

Wait. What? What is this unraveling of which they speak? The riots in Ferguson? Kardashianophilia? And isn’t America’s still-vibrant gun culture — blamed by the doyennes of disarmament for “gun violence” — a reflection of our cultural and spiritual health?

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65 COMMENTS

    • I don’t think it’s so black and white. Ya, gun violence is absolutely down nationally, something I’m not sure I’ve even heard a gun-control advocate admit, and it is the plain truth, but at the same time, gun violence has spiked in certain places, like of course Chicago, and I do absolutely think that is the result of, call it what you will, something akin to a “spiritual unraveling”. Poverty, poor education, broken families, drugs, these things cause gun crime in these places….not the guns, as we all know, since there are many places around the country that have more guns per capita, looser gun laws, and despite that, have MUCH lower crime and murder rates. But the politicians go after guns cuz it s the easy out, a distraction from THEIR failures. So, no, its not the guns, we know that. So ya, I would say its culture, or a “spiritual unraveling”, that is, where increases of gun violence occur. https://mattsamerica.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/why-progressives-should-love-the-2nd-amendment/

      • The spikes you mention are real but they are also dramatic and under a very short timeline. The family has been ruined for decades. The crime spikes in some major cities have a more proximate and political cause and its name is Obama and the mainstream media who have created a race relations crises by design.

      • I guess you haven’t watched “Gangs of New York.” Inner city violence has been an issue in every poor neighborhood in every metropolis throughout the history of man. The idea that men are by nature peaceful and against violence is a false construct of the social welfare mentality.

    • There’s little doubt that our culture is decaying and our society unraveling. Just look around at the real signs of this decline. Transgenders are homosexuals are celebrated as heroes while Christians are demonized and the Bible labeled as hate speech. A President who, without penalty, routinely violates the Constitution and the law. Al Sharpton, the Kardashians and the worship of celebrities. A national debt of $20,000,000,000,000 and no political will to slow its growth. Explosion in the growth of gangs in the inner cities. A virtual police state surveillance system operated by the federal government. Ferguson. Milwaukee. Failed public education. The list goes on and on. Gun violence? Only as it shows the barbarism which has overtaken many of our inner cities.

  2. “Something is wrong in America when fellow citizens use firearms to settle differences,”

    Perhaps there is great potential to fix what is wrong with America in each particular instance, by presenting our own personal defense tool of choice. They wish to attack me. I must beg to differ with them, as I don’t want them to attack me and/or my own.

    Reminds me of a similar situation amungst a nation in the middle east, and all of its neighbors.

  3. Since the human species has been violent since way before guns were even a thing, I’m gonna say no.

  4. Toledo is a sh*thole. Always has been. 25 years ago I managed a crew for a security contractor in the inner city. My team, though all certified and trained to carry were prohibited by the contract with the city masters to carry, in one of the most dangerous parts of the city. I personally witnessed gang bangers buying arms out of the back of a beat up Cadillac. Meanwhile 20 minutes away at a lakeshore condo where we also had security we were asked by the tenant council to carry because it reassured those that stayed there.

  5. No, but gun control *is* a sign of cultural and spiritual unraveling. Gun control advances the concept that because of statistically rare injuries and deaths involving firearms we should, as a society, embrace a universal policy of distrust, assuming that anyone and everyone we meet on the street might just kill us if they have access to firearms. That’s a tremendously pessimistic (indeed, poisonous) attitude; its popularity beneath the banner of “Hope” would be laughable if its proponents were not so serious about the idea and so heavily invested in pushing that agenda.

    • You’re right on target. Every action taken by the progressive left undermines its own stated goals of love, diversity, and mutual tolerance. It’s almost like those aren’t really the progressives’ goals at all…

    • Exactly, and if after their aims (firearms removal & indefensible citizenry) were met (and found to be as useless as a Chicago gun law), what would likely be the next “reasonable, common sense,” infringement? My guess would be illegal to speak of failures, just like King George III.

  7. No, it’s a sign of the failure of Democrat policies and the further deterioration of an already toxic inner city culture.

  8. When the government takes citizens right to bear arms it becomes the citizens right to take away the governments right to govern. [ George Washington ]

    • Yes, but with swords. Plus, the part where you take off your glove and use it to slap the other guy in the face first. Twice.

      • I like the slapping people with gloves part — especially if my “glove” could be an iron gauntlet — but I like my chances better with a gun. Attempting swordplay would just get me killed.

  10. The more a group of people live by traditional American values, culture, and faith, the less they seem to have the kind of problems with violence of any type. So yes, the shootings are a sign of cultural and spiritual unraveling. Once these people decide to weave themselves back into the fabric of American life, I won’t be a bit surprised if they stop settling arguments by shooting each other, and stop having to attend so many funerals.

    • That’s a possibility. I believe that when there is no easy money to be made by selling drugs to visitors to your neighborhood (so long as you have killed the competition), hanging out on street corners and shooting at your neighbors will become a very hungry job, guns will be sold for food, and there will be a bunch of new job applicants in town. IOW, “follow the money”, cultural, family, faith, etc notwithstanding. End the war on drugs.

    • “The more a group of people live by traditional American values, culture, and faith, the less they seem to have the kind of problems with violence of any type.”

      Traditional values, broad brush, generally speaking, sure. Culture, once again, broad brush, sure. Faith? Whatever works for you, but the cause and effect of having “faith” are really clear in our prison population – ~78% of the prisoners are Abrahamic of some stripe. Maybe 1% atheists at most generous. I’ll be happy to take you around North STL into the churches where the gangsters’ mothers are, and half of those gangsters are always be prayin’ to Jeeeez-us. Right before dey’s finna cap a brotha, and fank Jeeeez-us dat dey din’t get shot.

      Other than for purposes of self-defense, me, and my fellow atheists, are the kind of people you want as neighbors.

  11. The existence of “gun violence” as a term of political utility, social manipulation, and a lever for authoritarian control is definitely a sign of cultural and spiritual unraveling.

    May not be exactly what was asked, but it’s the true answer.

        • It may not be completely drilled down on yet, but c’mon man, that’s like 25 years ago when people still actually suggested that of the hundred billion-ish of stars in our galaxy, times the hundred billion of so observable galaxies, that it was unlikely there were other stars with planets was just ludicrous on it’s face.

          Do you really think they chose it? There’s real gay dudes in Muslim countries (not guys who just bust a nut in 12 year boys, because that’s all they can get, I mean actual gays) where they can throw you off a building without fear of the law. Not to mention throughout the animal kingdom there are a boatload of animals, who have a gay population. It’s a genetic variation – one obviously not a good one since it can’t self-propagate on it’s own, but it normally operates in congress with the other gene that allows you to marry fat chicks, close your eyes, and pretend it’s what you would rather be having sex with.

          Trans? That’s just a mental disorder, we should be helping those people, not feeding their illness by “accepting” them. They’re sick. (Unless you’re in Thailand, and then being a ‘lady-boy’ is about earning a living…)

        • “we should be helping those people, not feeding their illness by “accepting” them. ”

          Nor by paying for their sex change operations in prison with our tax dollars.

  13. Almost everything force fed to the public in the mainstream news, media, entertainment, school system is designed to dumb down and culturally and spiritually diminish the public.

  14. On day one some poor slob got beaten to death with a dull rock over a shiny rock.
    There is nothing new here.
    Societies/humanities great failing is thinking that it has evolved beyond beating each other to death over shiny rocks.

  15. Whenever the term ‘gun violence’ is used, it’s a thinly veiled reference to disarming law abiding folks.

    The overall violent crime rate is at a historical low (apparently) and is falling. There is only one area in which the violent crime rate seems to be increasing, and that is in the inner city ghettos.

    The do gooders should be looking at reducing violence amongst the small subset of the population where some change might actually do some good.

    • The sad truth is that the PC/SJW insurgency is so active in this country, that singling out certain demographics ist total verboten, even if you’re just trying to help.

  16. I think there’s got to be some manner of societal problem, though I have no idea what it could possibly be other than the increased prevalence of “self-made” fame by virtue of youtube and similar self-publishing media.

    There have always been guns in the country, lots of them, but the number of horrific tragedies effected by deluded young people seems to have increased dramatically, even while violent crime on the whole is trending down.

    It’s really weird.

    • It’s a cultural/parenting problem, full stop. Mass/school shootings didn’t happen in decades past because the Lanzas and Loughners of the country were disciplined, not neccessarily by corporal punishment, and made to work until they stopped being sh!theads.

      When I tell people this, and that 50 years ago we could have guns shipped to our doors with nothing more than payment and a signed order form, the most common answer I get is “Wow, I’m surprised kids weren’t forging their parents’ checks and mailing guns to themselves.” That right there shows how far the culture has fallen.

  17. Yes, shootings are a sign of cultural and spiritual unraveling.

    And the two root problems that are causing that unraveling? For most of the masses:
    (1) There is no concrete standard of absolute right or wrong.
    (2) Feelings overrule timeless standards of right and wrong even if/when they exist.

    When there are no concrete standards, everything and nothing is good to go and there can be no harmony. And when feelings overrule everything, there can be no harmony.

    I am currently trying to work through a gravely serious disagreement with someone at my church. I have objective, timeless standards of right and wrong — including the Bible (the source of timeless standards of right and wrong) — on my side. I also have facts on my side. The other person has intense feelings that violate the Bible. Nevertheless, they continue to rationalize their position. Of course their “rationalization” is nothing more than vomiting words which validate their feelings. Without a higher standard, we cannot ever come to any agreement.

    • Last I checked, you can find support for absolutely *any* position in the bible, different congregations are absolutely positive that they are right and the neighboring congregation is not only wrong but possibly Satanic. All are correct, the opposing belief is wrong. Everybody’s opposing belief. Work on it.

      • LarryinTX,

        “… you can find support for absolutely *any* position in the bible, different congregations are absolutely positive that they are right and the neighboring congregation is not only wrong but possibly Satanic.”

        I have seen this many times. Again, the fundamental problem is feelings. Someone who doesn’t like a Biblical truth will attempt to circumvent that truth with feelings and Bible verses that are either translated incorrectly or taken out of context. If you are willing to improperly translate the original language and take content out of context, you can argue for anything. That sounds a lot like our current mainstream media, doesn’t it? Misquote someone and/or frame their statements in an improper context in order to forward your agenda.

        There are a several Biblical truths that I don’t like and certainly do not feel good. Nevertheless, I recognize them as truth and do my best to incorporate them into my life, no matter how unsavory those truths may be.

      • LarryinTX,

        Example: Christian pacifists will justify their position with three arguments:
        (1) The Bible tells us that God will provide for us.
        (2) Peter cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant and Jesus told Peter to put his sword away.
        (3) Jesus told Christians to “turn the other cheek”.

        At first glance those verses from the Bible seem to support the idea of pacifism. Deeper inspection (without an agenda) dispel that notion. For example:
        (1) The Bible tells us that God will provide for us. More specifically, the Bible directs us to work and expect that our loving God will ensure that our work is fruitful. This is inline with the broad Biblical principle that God enjoys working in partnership with us. That is why food does not appear magically in our mouths. Rather, we work to produce food and count on our work to be fruitful, expecting that God will continue to ensure that the sun provides light and clouds provide rain. Those are not the words/principles of a pacifist.
        (2) Jesus told Peter to put away his sword primarily because Jesus’ mission at that moment was to be arrested, convicted, and crucified for our sins. Jesus was not interested in a military victory. And note that Jesus simply told Peter to put his sword away in its sheath. Jesus did not scold Peter for owning a sword. In fact right before that event Jesus even encouraged his closest followers to go out and buy a sword if they did not already have one. Those are not the words/principles of a pacifist.
        (3) Jesus told Christians to turn the other cheek specifically to insults, nothing more and nothing less. Reading that verse in the original language in the actual context of the culture of that time makes that apparent. (There are details that involve a backhand slap as an insult at that time and turning the other cheek was a way to reveal the inappropriate physical action of the other person without escalating the situation.) Jesus did NOT tell Christians to be pacifists in the face of a rape or other brutal or deadly attack. Furthermore, the Old Testament even tells us that a person who defends themselves from a home invader in the middle of the night was not guilty of murder if the home invader died as a result of the homeowner’s self-defense actions. Again, those are not the words/principles of pacifists.

        So, why do Christian pacifists advance the pacifist agenda? Because it doesn’t feel good to be responsible for your own personal security. It doesn’t feel good to invest $1,000 or more on a good handgun, ammunition, practice, and training to be highly competent. It doesn’t feel good to schlep around a handgun and be aware of your surroundings all the time. It doesn’t feel good to give up certain recreational or even evangelism activities that skirt dangerous environments. Finally, it doesn’t feel good to spend four hours researching the topic to learn the Biblical truth regarding self-defense. That is why Christian pacifists advance a feeble attempt to justify their position.

  18. In answer to the headline: Yes, but only with the provision that these cultural and spiritual unravelings are only happening in the Democratic hell holes that by their nature encourage this kind of problem.The government can not substitute for daddy and the government can not substitute for the church; when they attempt these things they prevent the people from helping themselves. Government very often makes the problem worse and are sometimes the cause of the problem in the first place.

  19. Violence has little correlation with guns. It’s primary ingredient is the deterioration of internal social cohesion. Lack of morality, decomposition of the nuclear family and it’s internal components. There are other contributing factors, and many conservative books have been written about them.

  20. Violence around the country is down, except in cities where the “special people” live. Thus, those “special people” campaign for policies that will affect the entire nation, rather than dealing with the mess in their own house.

  22. Is violence with guns a sign of cultural and spiritual unraveling?

    [Sorry this is gonna be a bit of a rant and I’m probably going to need a flame suit by the time I’m done.]

    No. This is the expected outcome of shitty public policy, specifically the WoD combined with the way that, mostly Democrats, but politicians in general have managed cities for the last number of decades.

    Look, we all have differences is how we view the world and that’s OK. Some people think all drugs should be banned and dealers executed. Some people think abortion should be illegal. Well, here’s the deal: When the metal meets the meat in the real world your opinions on morality or how things “should work” mean exactly fuck all in terms of public policy. People are going to do things you find morally objectionable no matter what laws are passed. Further, no policy is without it’s downsides, though it may not have an upshot to it at all (Looking at you Obummercare.)

    When we talk about public policy the question that needs to be answered is not “What’s my opinion on the subject?” but rather “What policy can we set forth here that gives us the maximum benefit to society with the least downside?”

    So, as I said, your opinion on right and wrong or morals or ethics means exactly fuck all. Some (probably) well-intentioned assholes with a “moral” agenda to stop gun violence created GFZ’s. How’s that working out? It’s not. You can see exactly the same problem with the WoD. While it’s a nice idea to have everyone sober and friendly the law doesn’t make it fucking so. Instead we get a black market that’s completely uncontrolled by society where since there is no institutionalized system of law people kill haul off and kill someone when they’re wronged.

    We saw this during prohibition. Booze went from legal to illegal but the demand was still there. That demand fueled a black market that led to a huge rise in organized crime and violence as various factions warred over who got to sell bath tub gin to whom. Drugs are no different. Abortion is no different. Guns are no different.

    If you ban something for which there is a demand you will create a black market. Black markets, by their nature, rely on violence to enforce their rules and settle disputes. They also come with no regulation so you have no idea what you’re actually getting. Banning abortion will only move the demand underground to the proverbial “back ally abortionist” with a coat hanger. We already know what banning drugs does. Banning guns, or seriously restricting them only opens up yet another lucrative market for violent thugs to make loads of cash and gives them another reason to face-shoot each other or maybe miss their target and face-shoot a five year old. As for regulation, anyone remember when Tommy buys a gun from Borris the Blade in Snatch and the gun doesn’t work? That’s what a black market gets you.

    Now, circling back here. The WoD has given gangs and freelancers the ability to make a lot of tax free money. That the government has aided and abetted such a situation, of this there can be no doubt. However, the folks at .gov have also managed to completely fuck up the school system. You should hear the shit my 17 year old cousins tell me. When I ask where they got such ridiculous ideas the answer is always the same: school.

    Those same people at .gov have managed to design a welfare system that is tantamount to slavery. Poor people make a deal with the Devil. They vote a certain way and they get free stuff but the fine print says they never get anything past the bare minimum and bettering themselves without losing benefits they need as a “bridge” to a legit job is impossible. The government takes away their benefits at a rate that is much faster than they gain benefits by working. In effect, they take a job and they get a pay cut in many circumstances. Let’s say you work for company X, well company Y offers you a job. What’s the deal? Oh, they pay less, the benefits are worse, the work environment is worse and the hours are longer. In fact you’ll run a pretty good chance of ending up homeless and bankrupt if you take the job. Who here would take that deal? None of us.

    So yeah, it’s about government policy. Government policy is what’s fucking things up. It’s almost like the system, taken as a whole, was designed to destroy families and create a permanent criminal class at the bottom and at the top (political elites). When you encourage and incentivize bad behavior you’re going to get more of it. When you incentivize a breakdown of the family you’re going to get more broken homes. When you incentivize drug dealing you’re going to get more of it and with that will come an statistically increased level of violence. When you do all of these things, you make things worse. You’re crafting shitty policy.

    This isn’t fucking hard to figure out. The root cause of all of this is piss poor public policy that is the brainchild of a bunch of dumbfuck dogooders, greedy and power mad politicians and a bunch of retards who think their moral opinion on something will create a law or reg that will magically control the behavior of others.

    Like I said, not hard to figure out. Dr. Motherfucking Dre had this figured this out when he said “Keep us trapped in the same place we’re raised in./Then they wonder why we act so outrageous/Run around stressed out and pull out gauges.”

    Would fixing this stop the problem of “gun violence” 100%? No, but it would put one big fucking dent in our murder rate.

    /end rant. Apologies.

    • Very long comment, but worth reading. You’ll get no flame from me.

      You’re absolutely on the right track here. Plus, I’ve been in that poor-people situation and you’re absolutely right about the bootstrap penalties in gov’t programs. I didn’t let it stop me (took 11 yrs, but I got a college degree and eventually a borderline middle-class job), but it sure is demoralizing to get a 25-cent per hour raise at work — or to finally get a full-time job — and find out that you’d be financially better off doing nothing.

      The one place you went wrong is your use of rap lyrics; please explore the world of metal and quote some better music next time. 🙂

      • Well played. I’d forgotten about this song.

        Funny how Biggie, Tupac and Dre all said basically the same thing, but this song is somehow “racist”.

        • “racisss”. C’mon now, say it properly…

          Anyone is forgiven for forgetting The Rainmakers, short of alt/college radio, they were never that “big”. Rockin’ at the T-dance was another bit of brilliant social commentary.

          (Apropo Metal Church, nicely done.)

        • If you want dem dollars and sharp suits it’s “waaaaaaccccist”.

          At least according to Sharpton/Jackson College.

          Personally I prefer actual English.

    • You have nothing to apologize for – you speak the truth.

      Do gooders have done some massive damage. Prohibition – stop people from drinking. A good thing, right? Law of unintended consequences. Or dumb do gooders that can’t think through the logical results of their pet cause?

  23. Well as I’m typing this I’m watching a video of a POS MF’er on a bike assaulting a 71 year old black man. And shoots him in the stomach after he wouldn’t give buckwheat a buck…clearly a problem on the Southside. Yeah there is clearly a problem in Chicago. Men need to be redeemed by the blood of JESUS.

  24. The term “Gun Violence” is a Newspeak term coined by a degenerate Totalitarian Movement which is the result of a “cultural and spiritual unraveling.”

  25. “Something is wrong in America when fellow citizens use firearms to settle differences…”

    What a load of twaddle. This country was a far more civilized place when we actually used firearms to settle differences. There used to be these engagements called “duels,” and we gunsmiths even custom-made pistols explicitly for duels.

    Sadly, duels went out of style around the Civil War.

  26. Just made the connection. RF’s avatar is a plush version of the keyboardist from Jaba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi except white and OCing. Your welcome and I think I just stalled the internet 🙂

  27. There was something we could have done.

    Back during the Los Angeles riots, after rioters started shooting firefighters, the U.S. could have sent some bombers from Edwards Air Force Base and bomb the shit out of the rioters. this would have been followed up by the Army seizing control of Los Angeles. For “[y]ou don’t fight a junkyard dog with ASPCA rules. What you do is you take the leash off your bigger, meaner dog”. And this would be a permanent state of affairs. Civil administration in Los Angeles would be abolished. Soldiers would patrol every street, occupy every point. And there would be zero tolerance for the slightest of disorderly conduct. Any disorderly conduct will be met with lethal force. There will also be arbitrary arrests and searches, and even the slightest resistance would be met with lethal force.

    This would cause the people to fear the U.S. military, And this fear would keep them in line. Thus, Los Angeles would have become the safest city on Earth. The model of governance- ruling by the fear of force- would no doubt have been followed by other cities. There would be no more mass shootings, because fear would keep the population in line.

    What would have been the downside of “tak[ing] the leash off [our] bigger, meaner dog”?

  28. “Something is wrong in America when fellow citizens use their positions of power in the IRS to stop political dissent”. There, I fixed it for you.

  29. Gun is a tool. Violence is the action. Equating both as one in the same is ignorant. Like how most people keep saying “Money is the root of all evil” when it’s really “The LOVE OF money is the root of all evil”.

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