Speaking The Truth

Hi. And good, whatever it might be, wherever you are. Welcome to Practicing Truth.

Today's Topic: Speaking The Truth

But first, let me credit today's featured music: I Won’t Back Down by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you take what I say as food for thought.

Have a fabulous day!

According to the Gun Violence Archive, 11,523 people have died from gun violence in the U.S. as of April 10, 2023. 398 of them were teens, and 71 were children. An average of roughly 115 deaths each day.

Although death by suicide made up about 57% of gun violence deaths, there were also 378 police-officer-involved shootings, 409 "unintentional" shootings, and 146 mass shootings where an assailant shot or killed four or more victims. 

This week we can add 4 killed and 32 injured at a "Sweet Sixteen" party in Alabama. A sixteen-year-old boy shot in Kansas after going to the wrong address. And a twenty-year-old woman shot dead in New York after a friend mistakenly pulled into the wrong driveway.

These numbers are outrageous! So, why aren't we outraged?

People are being killed everywhere. In their homes, at the mall, in grocery stores. No place is safe from someone angry because of some slight, a cause they want to publicize, or suffering from a mental breakdown or illness, shooting it up and killing people. But then, no place has ever been safe from that.

However, before 2008 we didn't suffer this level of killing because buying a gun was much more difficult. But that was before the Supreme Court made end runs around the constitutional amendment process with their rulings in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago cases.

Since these rulings, gun violence in America increased by 17% between 2009 and 2016. As of 2022, The United States has the highest level of gun violence among developed nations, with a gun homicide rate 26 times greater than its peer nations. It’s obvious, the connection between gun violence and easier access to guns is a problem. A serious problem!  But did the Supreme Court's rulings in the Heller and McDonald cases enable this bloodshed?

Yes!

Are there those who are willing to deny it?

Absolutely!

In his 1895 book The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, Gustave Le Bon made the following observation:

"The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim!

I speak the truth here, of seeking and accepting the truth. And applying it to your life. And though what I say here falls, mainly, on ears, inclined to reject the truth. Ears that are attuned to deception. And minds that are open to illusion.

You can rest assured; I will not stop!

Thanks for listening.

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