Killing the Masses

Killing the Masses

My beautiful niece, NicHole, and a friend were debating the epidemic of mass shootings currently plaguing our country. Her friend insisted that other counties (Canada) had plenty of mass shootings; it wasn't just an American problem.

She disputed that claim and suggested he check out the facts. That seemed like a great idea. Taking it upon myself I decided do a little research and check them out myself. So I Googled "Mass shootings in Canada," our closest neighbor.

The commonly accepted definition of a Mass Shooting is defined as one where at least four people are shot or killed, not including the gunman. Some agencies that track this sort of tragedy have since reduced the number of victims required to qualify an event as a "Mass shooting" to three. I decided to go with four victims just to narrow the number. Seriously, almost any given weekend in America will result in three people being killed by gunfire routinely.

I came across this list on Wikipedia that listed around forty massacres that have occurred in Canada. Now 40+ mass killings is nothing to be proud of. But the fact is that the first incident listed happened in 1689 as part of King William's war and the next incident happened five decades later in the same war. The next incident happened 5 decades later in the same war suggests that these crimes don’t happen often. At least they didn’t.

Other incidents were spread out over years, decades and almost centuries apart. At one point, between 1885 and 1967 none were recorded. By comparison, the cover of this week’s Time magazine features a list of 253 mass shootings that have occurred in America in the first half of this year alone.

The interesting and sad thing about the statistics from Canada is that, of the 40+ incidents listed, 14 of them, almost a third of the total, have happened since 2014.

I took the difference in population into consideration so I also looked up comparable violence in countries as large or larger than American in population and/or power.

I looked at China and Russia for a start. Both are global powers with a major role in the way they contribute to our sense of security. They have far less incidents of mass killings instigated by individuals against people. Those incidents that they have experienced were actually acts of the governments against the people.

These links will give you a start if you want to examine such events for yourself. I could post more links but you are free to search for the stats for yourself and interpret them as you wish. There are other sites that break down the figures in ways that will argue that the U.S. is far from the leader in the deaths by such attacks. Just remember, there are lies, damn lies and statistics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Canada

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_China

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Russia

These links serve as statistical evidence that the increase in the violence that humans wreak upon each other is a worldwide phenomenon; one that extends across all borders. Such tragedies are accelerating at a rate that suggests madness is taking hold.

While America is clearly leading the way when it comes to incidents of mass killings, people across the planet are more inclined to use violence to express their frustration and anger. They are losing control of their lives while living in a world that is beyond their control. People are feeling more helpless and hopeless. The world is leaving most of us without any promise of a future.

Take away hope and most people will fill that void with hate. People in such a state want to kill.

What can we do to stop the violence?

It has been suggested that to get a handle on controlling these events we need to pay attention to our kids; that we all need to think first before we act. We need to hold people accountable for the things they say and do. We need to bring back morals and values. Maybe so, but I think it goes beyond such simple solutions.

Personally, I don't believe in concepts such as "morals" or "values." when it comes to deciding whether a person holds or lacks them in a way that they can be identified as a good or bad person. When it comes to identifying someone as a possible threat, it's just too complicated.

Many people believe gambling or drinking are immoral. They believe in "family values," as long as it's the type of family they approve of. They are quick to judge other families, gay couples who adopt children, bi-racial couples or people who live together without the bonds of holy matrimony, as having lesser values; or none at all.

I will leave it to others to determine the state of morality of those different than them. I do, however, believe that accountability and responsibility are concepts that can be equally applied to everyone regardless of their personal values or morals.

We have become the sort of society where we need to blame others rather than accept blame; qwhere we seek vengeance rather than justice. We want everyone to win a trophy just for playing and deny the winner their right to declare victory over all. We need to remember that we are all different as individuals, but we are all the same as human beings.

When it comes to re-enforcing such things as morals, values, accountability and responsibility, we can't look to others... teachers, lawyers, judges or politicians to do what is necessary to impose them on us. It can only be done if each one of us begins by looking in the mirror and pointing the finger at the person looking back.

It's not a matter of bringing such attributes as accountability, responsibility, morality and unity back... it's a matter of learning to accept them as our duty as individuals and apply them as a people.

When we want to stop killing, the killings will stop.