Letters 12-23-2012

Gun violence

Let’s agree on one thing

Before the loudmouths take over and end any hope that discussion can lead towards resolution, let us please agree about one thing: There is no goodness in the killing of young children.

Instead of yelling back and forth at one another “Sign this petition to outlaw guns,” or “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns;” let’s start with something we can agree about, and that is that there is no goodness in the killing of young children.

But we do kill young children. We kill them all the time; we do it again and again. If we do something this regularly and methodically, there may be a reason we do it. Is it only craziness that is the cause of the killings in Connecticut, Aurora and Columbine? Is it only craziness that is the cause of the killing of children in Iraq and Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East, and in Darfur and Mali and Somalia?

Many gun advocates believe protection is needed to defend homeowners, shopkeepers and other citizens from criminals seeking to take their possessions, their money or their lives. What is it that keeps escalating the need for more and more weapons of destruction that ultimately leads to the killing of more and more children?

Follow the money. The one fact common to all these killings is the profit motive. Someone is selling these killers their weapons and their ammunition. They love this violence. They salivate from the profits. Unites States’ arms manufacturers earn over $170 billion a year on overseas arms sales. This does not include the 14 million guns plus 14 billion rounds of ammunition sold yearly within the United States (AmmoLand.com Shooting Sports News).

Along with nearly every criticism of these tragedies we see on television a pious commentator justifying sales of these weapons because it is our right; it’s in the Constitution.

It amazes me that no one notices the intimate connection between those who kill with these guns and the industry that makes money from these guns. Gun manufacturers, gun sellers and gun show promoters love every child’s death, whether in the Unites States or overseas. Gun sales positively soar after every mass murder.

Are guns evil? Are all policemen, all soldiers or all hunters evil? Of course not. There are plenty of reasons to maintain the Second Amendment rights of Americans to bear arms. But there is nothing antagonistic to the Second Amendment in the goals of improved gun safety, of improved mental health services for children and adults in need and in the need to find sensible ways to reduce the overly easy availability of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction.

People in this country who are actively protesting against gun control and against improved gun safety are unwitting dupes of the gun manufacturing and armaments industrialists. Follow the money. That’s the way crimes are solved, drug cartels are broken and cheaters are caught. Follow the money. Who profits from the death of every child, every adult, every soldier, every policeman, every criminal killed by a firearm? It’s not the Constitution, it’s the money.

Think about that and think about the children. Then we can discuss what to do about it.

Barry Blum, MD

Kailua-Kona

Sen. Daniel Inouye

Advice on how to cope

“You better behave yourself,” are some of the words I remember Sen. Inouye telling me this past July during my visit with him in his office at Washington, D.C. — we are both infantry combat veterans.

I asked him, as a combat veteran, how did he cope with the war after he got out into the civilian world, because for me, while I was in Afghanistan, I learned an American art of warfare which is to win over the hearts and minds by creating a certain social role for people to be game pieces.

Sen. Inouye gave me an odd look. Then I said, yes, collecting and moving these game pieces by an implicit or physical force will allow the global player to also win over a country’s natural resources, which will ultimately make the foreign occupier a rich entity and a victorious conquer.

I believe that Sen. Inouye was a soldier who continued on an age-old legacy to protect his people, and I want to continue a soldier’s legacy for protecting people by sharing some of my knowledge from my wartime experiences in Afghanistan. A sense of reality can be made from the idea of a person coaxing another soul into acting out a specific social role in an effort to shape a proverbial dream world. I was also taught that once any soul believes a certain fantasy, then he has lost himself to this world of illusions, where the weakness for many souls is a lust for a powerful image or social role.

So, please be aware of who has a hold over your heart and mind. Ask yourself, am I a game piece being used for a vainglorious pursuit for a powerful image, or for an altruistic gain?

Isaac Kawika Nahakuelua

Hilo