What we Need is War Control
The Debate is Deeper than Better Mental Health Care or Gun Control
No More War by Ben Heine
What We Need is War Control: The Debate is Deeper than Mental Health Care or Gun Control
Full disclosure: I hate guns; I always have—even before my oldest son was killed by a gun shot to the head in a foreign land that the US was/still is occupying. (By the way, Casey had a gun, armor, albeit inadequate, PLUS the back-up of the First Cavalry, and he was still killed by a gun...interesting). I desperately wish we lived in a country or on a planet where not one weapon was necessary, but we don't—yet. In this post, I'll be discussing how the debate over violence in our society runs much deeper than issues like mental health care or gun control alone
“Weapons of war like AR-15s don’t belong in the hands of civilians here in the US.” This is the addlepated reasoning of the neoliberal crowd when they talk about the problem of mass-shootings, domestically, but, then about ZERO of them go on to say that “The US also doesn’t need to arm the children of our nation to go and kill the children in other countries.” How about: NO ONE NEEDS TO CARRY AN AR-15. Disarm everyone, and everywhere! Then the liberals go to the trigger for gun owners: “TAKE THEIR GUNS AWAY.”
Also, conservatives criticize liberals for the lack of a strong mental health program in the US—which after three-years of Covid insanity is need more than ever. The trigger words for liberals is: “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” There is NEVER any debate about the profound culture of violence here in the U.S.
It is this polarization that allows the violence to continue. While liberals shout about gun control, and conservatives shout about better mental health care, as if these are mutually exclusive solutions to the problem of gun violence in our society. Ironically, it was Ronald Reagan, a conservative icon, who shut down mental health options during his regime. This lack of comprehensive mental health care has continued to plague our nation ever since, and the issue has become intertwined with the gun control debate.
We should recognize that the situations leading to gun violence—including mass shootings, gang warfare, and family members turning on each other—are often much more complex than simply the presence of guns or a lack of mental health treatment. We need to look deeper into the root causes of violent behavior and examine the societal structures in place that perpetuate it.
War Control
Instead of just focusing on gun control or mental health care, let's think more broadly about the concept of war control. When we talk about war control, we're not solely referring to large-scale conflicts between nations. Rather, we're examining how our society glorifies and perpetuates the use of violence to resolve disputes and achieve various objectives.
Our governments, media, and entertainment industries often send the message that violence is acceptable, glamorous, and even necessary, in certain situations. This disordered normalization of violence and the acceptance of war as an inevitable part of human existence affect our perspectives on the use of guns and the treatment of mentally ill individuals in our society. There is also the aspect of PTSD and the militarization of local law enforcement which exacerbate this issue.
The very heart of the matter is to prioritize peace, over mass-killing; prioritize peace over supporting war criminals; prioritize peace over spending trillions on the war machine; prioritize people over profits.
If killing is wrong for me, then it's wrong for the Empire.
I dream of (and work really hard for) the day when War Control is a reality, and our priorities honor the beating of every heart while we watch our deadly tools of war rust, break down, and return to the soil. To get there, we need to actively challenge the way our society depicts and condones violence.
Take Action:
Educate ourselves and others about the history of war and its consequences
Support and contribute to peace initiatives, both within our communities and at the international level
Advocate for policies in our communities that address the root causes of violence, such as economic inequality and access to education
Unfortunately, the psychopathic mass-murderers at the top won’t give up their power and their profits, easily, so we need to sow seeds of peace within our families and our communities, and maybe, just maybe, we can grow peace from the ground up.
The time has come for us to move beyond the limited and polarizing debates surrounding gun control and mental health care. It's imperative that we address the bigger picture and work locally for peace.
Join The Discussion
Intrigued? Outraged? Can't wait to see what happens next? Share your thoughts in the comments section below, and let's get a conversation going. If you found this post compelling, don't forget to share it with your friends and subscribe to this Substack for more eye-opening updates. The truth is out there, and together, we can make sure it's heard.
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Please consider a monetary subscription to Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Newsletter and receive a digital copy of my latest ebook:
Quantum Covid
or:
Paypal: CindySheehansSoapbox@gmail.com
Send Check/Money Order/Cash/Love Notes/Hate Mail/Dark Chocolate to:
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox LLC
PO Box 6264
Vacaville, CA 95696
We have shooters because we have no mental health care...and we have no economic justice, we have no examples of honest leadership, we have a broken health care system killing us, we have broken communities and loss of small businesses, we have illiteracy, shaming, vicious rage-aholics, WE ARE FALLING APART as a society..we are drugged through distractions and computer games and shaming and Netflix and a fear of death and because most of us have not really LIVED... we are FUCKED and no matter how much I love others, it is not going to stop....WE ALL HAVE TO begin by loving one another through ACTION and organizing our communities to deal with the very real problems we are seeing everywhere...STOP WAITING FOR POLITICIANS to do it...they DO NOT CARE about us because they are part of a system of delusional power seekers...we need a goddamned revolution of the people....
I could have a short memory of history here, but in the mid-90s they passed a law allowing TV commercials for prescription drugs. There were surely mass shootings before, but the first big one after this law was Columbine. The mental health crisis didn't necessarily cause the gun violence, but this new psychiatric drug free-for-all, especially for kids and teens to solve every freakin' social problem, accelerated it.
The classic conservative argument for addressing mental health (yes, while ignoring their hero's decision regarding the institutions) must be coupled with the alt conservative argument against pharmaceuticals. The liberals (at least the ones I know) have this horrible blind spot on pharma, and don't see that shitting on the Sacklers is not enough.
That's why European countries that still allow guns don't have this problem; they regulate drugs to a fault. It's much better for the population to regulate prescription drugs than guns. Australia brags about its lack of violence after their gun ban (ahem, Mr. Jefferies), but who built and populated quarantine camps and who didn't?
I still don't have a gun and I used to think the tyranny argument was ridiculous because the government has drones, tanks, etc. But after seeing what happened, it turns out the authorities are indeed scared of individual gun owners. It was about what they didn't do and not what they did do.