I would like to say that stricter gun laws would prevent gun violence or that it’s a “mental health issue.” In reality, we will never end the epidemic of gun violence until we change our culture. We need to change the culture that when someone who accidentally knocks on a wrong door it’s OK to shoot them. We used to help the person who is lost or in need of medical care.
We need to change the culture that it’s OK to shoot someone when they turn into the wrong driveway. I’ve gotten lost several times at night and ended up turning into a driveway instead of a street and was terrified that myself or my children would be shot for trespassing because that’s the person’s right to do so.
We need to change the culture that regularly listens to hate messages, that targets transgender folks and the queer community, that distrusts a person because of the color of their skin or their height or size or fill in the blank.
There will always we gun violence until we change our culture that worships guns as a solution to people’s hatred or fear of each other. Just stop it!
