Spiral of violence

The subject of having the right to own a gun and to have the right to decide about life and death stirs the emotions and several comments have been received and published.

Including one newspaper clipping of a recent story of three young guys who burglarized a house in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, USA.
Boys of 18 and 17 years old equipped with a knife and a machete.
Who selected a house on an isolated road where a woman and her 11-year old daughter were living.
The woman, Kimberley Cates, was stabbed to death in her bed and her daughter seriously injured.
The 17 year old Steven Spader is accused of hitting the woman with the machete.

One can conclude from this story that it is a wise thing to have a gun in the house.
To say that if the unfortunate woman in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, USA would have had a gun, she could have killed the three boys and saved her life.

Although this presumption is very hypothetical and another version could be made that even having a gun would not have been very helpful, there is another side to the story.

Let's have a look at those boys.
A 17 year old boy who goes with two young friends armed with a knife and a machete to a house that is on an isolated road obviously with the intent to make amok.
How is such an idea and such a plan coming up in the head of a 17 year old?
In what context is he living that this is in his head and in those of the two others, as a viable plan to do?

One thing that is known of these boys is that they were in the possession of marijuana.
They were users of soft drugs.

That gives us revealing conclusions:

1/ There is marijuana available in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, USA: also for under 18 years old boys.

2/The boys had money to buy the stuff.

3/The parents have sons that are on dope: the parents have tolerated this or their relationships with their sons were such that they didn't know.

But more can be said of the context of these boys.

What prospects do they have currently in the USA?
The banks were allowed to wreck the economy.
The politicians made the USA virtually bankrupt.
Non-employment and therefore job opportunities are very low.
In what perspective do these boys live?
To make a decent living?
To have a career?
To have affordable health care?
Is their future looking positive or negative?

And what do these boys see when they watch TV?
Cage fighting for example.
It is allowed to show on TV in the USA men that fight barehanded and are allowed to almost do anything to the other to incapacitate.
It is very violent, cruel, degrading and animal like.
This is though the entertainment offered and tolerated by the authorities.

And what do these boys see in the movie theatre?
Many of the films show excessive violence.
An average film show many people killed in most cruel ways.
Violence is offered as entertainment and fun.

And what do these boys play as games on their computers?
Being a fighter equipped with an arsenal of weapons scoring points for each opponent killed.
Computer games played for hours and hours and what does that do to the brains and thinking of young boys?

What kind of society is that in which these boys grow up then?
Can we not expect that in such a context for sure a certain percentage of people lose balance and become as animal like as what is projected on them?

And is the solution then to buy a gun to defend your home?
Isn't the USA caught in a spiral of violence?
Instead of working together to create a better and more peaceful society?


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