Civil Society is Fully in a State of Gun Crisis

Yesterday was, by some media counts, the 309th terrorist mass shooting in America so far this year. No other country in the world experiences this so often or so severely.

Civil society requires that its citizens feel safe in public spaces; destroy that generalized sense of safety and you will radically warp public opinion to the right (which promises safety and “tough on crime”) while producing a whole new generation of safe-space destroyers.

Our most fragile members of society are our children, which is why when shooters go after schools it disrupts society at its most fundamental level. Right behind schools are celebratory events (Vegas shooter, yesterday’s Trump supporter), stores/theaters, and places of worship.

If a malignant actor — say, Putin — wanted to truly disrupt American society, all he’d have to do is flood the country with weapons of war. If he could help reach some critical threshold — in most of Europe there are 15 to 20 weapons per 100 people as it was here 40 years ago; in America now, though, it’s over 120 per 100 — he could sit back, stir up a little political agitation, and watch the fireworks from afar.

Which reminds me of the September 17, 2019 article from National Public Radio (NPR):

“The National Rifle Association acted as a ‘foreign asset’ for Russia in the period leading up to the 2016 election, according to a new investigation…”