A Farewell to Arms

Give them lots of sex, perversion and rape,
give them lots of violence, and plenty to hate
--Give the People What They Want, The Kinks

This world's divided into two kinds of people:
the hunter and the hunted.
Luckily I'm the hunter. Nothing can change that
--The Most Dangerous Game,
Richard Connell

I've got my finger on the trigger
I ain't lettin' go
--Love is in Control, Donna Summer

[T]he deadliest sociopaths aren’t the ones
who dye their hair red
and identify with comic book nihilists
--Child Killer as "Comforter-in-Chief,
____________________

The genus Homo is populated by mostly violent species, the most recent incarnation the reasoning sapiens taking a commandment that they shall not kill. They have not been spectacularly successful with that injunction, however.

We in the United States have had wars to exterminate Indians, to retain slavery and to avenge the sinking of ships (the U.S.S. Maine and the R.M.S. Lusitania, for example.) In addition, we are tremendously innovative when it comes to creating weaponry, and have unleashed the power of the atom in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now, we can even bomb people remotely, so the trigger man need not feel the tang of immediate remorse as his targets are merely moving images on a screen.

We take it as gospel to answer aggression by using greater violence than that of the precipitating event. The Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) in which the U.S. is currently immersed is one example. Though a success if measured by outnumbered body counts, it provides no benefit to the retaliating country. The U.S. faced the abyss of nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and presently has five Navy carrier groups, a Strategic Air Command and an Army, all of which possess the nuclear weaponry to destroy continents with weapons leftover for follow-ons, should there be any need.

These are the national imperatives that quash "Thou Shalt not Kill", yet we wail and gnash teeth when another crazy kills people for no reason other than the sport of the kill. Compared to our nuclear potential, the bullets that rip holes though bodies are as mosquito bites to the population (though the bite is still deadly).

Guns cannot destroy the earth but nuclear bombs can, and they can be employed without unrolling the 2nd Amendment. We have a President with his finger on the trigger and he gets to manipulate these toys without a background check or a waiting period. Ranger does not doubt that the U.S. would destroy the world if push came to shove; only a fool would doubt that any nuclear nation would fail to light up the sky if they felt threatened by a like-armed enemy.

So excuse us if another senseless shooting fails to elicit crocodile tears. It is only a matter of time before man will destroy his little neck of the universe through his hubris and folly, and all of his efforts contrariwise will be for naught.