I read President Obama's words, speaking of the South Carolina killing of nine black church-goers. "At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."
Is that so? I thought, and I wondered what was different about us. I felt an urgency that we dissect each mass murderer. Influences? What influences did Dylann Storm Roof have? Was he raised with guns? Did he have a passion for them? He was a racist. How did he come to be so? He was an Xbox player? Does Xbox offer many violent video games? Did he have mental problems?
The words of a song came to my mind. Don Henley. "I've been trying to get down to the heart of the matter." I looked up the lyrics, thinking of starting this post with them. As I scrolled down the lines, I found what might be the answer to gun violence. "But, I think it's about forgiveness, forgiveness."
The person who can't forgive, builds up a hatred, and eventually it leads to something. Of course, it usually doesn't lead to killing, but with some, it does. Like the song goes on to say, "You keep carrying that anger, it'll eat you inside."
Someone has insisted that guns don't kill, people do. Maybe we should rephrase that. Guns don't kill; Hatred does. He who deals in hatred and anger, deals the cards of death. He might not play the card, himself, but his example teaches others to hate and to be angry, and then that person plays the cards of death, the killing cards.
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