May 30, 2022
Today’s episode begins with a discussion of Memorial Day. It is an American holiday that started off as Decoration Day after the end of the Civil War. The day evolved and eventually became a Federal holiday in 1971.
It’s important to remember that Memorial Day is a somber holiday. We are so used to saying the word “Happy” before most holidays, some will use it for this one as well. However, it is not a happy time for those whose memories we cherish on this day. It is a day meant to remember those who have fallen while in uniform. We honor those who paid the ultimate price in the defense of freedom and liberty here and around the world.
I then move to more discussion of the Uvalde, TX school shooting. As much as it pains me, I breakdown the documentation available on how officers were trained to respond to active shooters. Sadly, we know the 19 officers at the school did not follow their training materials. For whatever reason, these men without chests chose to wait outside, assuming the threat was isolated, while kids were still calling 911 desperate for saving. Some kids even covered themselves in the blood of their fallen classmates to hide from the killer.
Because of this, I do spend more time discussing our current culture and the festering rot taking place within it. Our past few generations are more isolated and alone than every before. With the continued breakdown of the family and fatherless homes, more and more kids spend hours, unsupervised, online. If they are more rambunctious, chances are they are also medicated. It’s a recipe for disaster we should have seen coming.
Ted Cruz covered some of these very subjects at his speech at the NRA Convention this weekend. His thoughts echo my own and many others who see the bigger and wider problem we face. The answer is not (nor will it ever be) a problem of too many guns. In over 50 years of data, the United States has gone from 43% ownership per capita to 42%. Guns have always been around, but their use in mass-shootings is relatively new, starting with Columbine in 1999. We have to look at what else was taking place at the same time. The dot.com explosion and high-speed internet. We began seeing chat rooms and websites and eventually social media. The more access we had to the world wide web, the smaller our own worlds have become.
It’s a big problem and one not solved over night, but if we are serious about reducing gun violence, we are going to have to deal with our culture in crisis. You can’t write a law forcing families to stay together, for parents to be involved with their kids and to put the phone/tablet/game console down to go play outside in the real world. But that change can start today, if we are willing to work toward it.
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