Gun Silencers Are Suddenly Selling Like Hot Cakes…

The silencer buying frenzy is the second wave of gun-related purchases in the last two years. After the Newtown massacre, gun owners feared that a weapons ban would be enacted and rushed to buy assault rifles. Now that last year’s push for universal background checks has failed, gun owners have a lot of guns on their hands, and are outfitting them with gadgets including silencers, flashlights, laser scopes, stocks, pistol grips and rail systems.

via Gun Silencers Are Suddenly Selling Like Hot Cakes | TIME.com.

Now you can kill your neighbor without anyone hearing you. We can’t seem to get enough accessories for all our guns. Only in America.  How sad is all this stuff???

Thank Heavens…..

 

Thank heavens that he couldn’t find a gun…..

It Seems To Always Be…

Similar attacks have targeted Shiite areas in Lebanon in recent months in retaliation for the Shiite Hezbollah fighters’ role in the civil war next door where Assad\’s forces are battling chaotic bands of Sunni rebels, including extremists fighters linked to al-Qaida.

SOURCE: Car bomb hits Shiite suburb of Beirut, killing 4 – Yahoo News.

Sadly, it seems to always be  one religious group battling another when car bombs  go off especially in the Middle East. I am very happy that we in the U.S. have not been drawn into this form of violence. I think a big part of that is our general acceptance of diversity in this country, even religious diversity. We as a nation have split off into thousands of versions of spirituality and even though each version usually believes they are the only ones to have it right, they generally tolerate others views of God.

The Middle East, maybe because it is the home ground for three major religions is strife with hostility.  The Sunnis and the Shiites are constantly killing each other for one reason or another. The Sectarian violence that is so prominent in the Middle East is always about one tribe fighting another.

How have we in the U.S. escaped this reign of religious  and sectarian inspired violence? I don’t know but I do recognize that much of the political vitriolic has a religious undertone. It seems that most of that is about “below the belt” issues that really don’t seem to be worth all the anguish those stands cause.

We are perhaps the most diverse country on earth. We are a nation of immigrants or at least that is our history. There are just too many different views about the world in this country to allow one or two to dominate over the others. I truly believe that is why we as a nation don’t have the unrest of many others in the world.

But I am fearful that this almost exponential increase in the wealth gap may someday drive us into a state of anarchy. Right now 50% of the wealth in this country is controlled by about 1% of the population. At some point the American dream will become an impossibility for too many. That is what I am fearful of…..

Bringing America Back to Life….

….I’m also not so sure that, as my friend said, it (gun violence) is the way the “world” is. The more I travel the world I am convinced it’s not the way the world is… it’s the way the USA is. I’ve seen a lot of the world, with travels taking me to about a dozen countries a year and this is what I’ve seen:

In one year, guns murdered:

27 in Australia, 59 in England and Wales, 60 in Spain, 190 in Canada… and 10,177 in the US.

Recently I was in a kid’s room looking at all the books on his shelf. I picked up a copy of Guinness Book of World Records. As we flipped through all the freaky and wild facts, one page caught my attention because it had a gun on it. “MOST GUNS” was the record. And which country held the record? The US — with nearly 300 million guns. But what haunted me even more was seeing that we have around 90 guns for every 100 people, almost as many guns as people. The runner up was India, with about 4 guns per 100 people…..

I don’t want gun violence to be normal, or acceptable. I don’t want it to simply be “the way the world is” — or the way the US is.

SOURCE: Shane Claiborne: Bringing America Back to Life | Red Letter Christians.

Add three more to the list from yet another school shooting on Monday. Will we ever as a country say “enough is enough”. Like so many other things the rest of the world has discovered solutions to this problem.  I know for the most part we are a macho country and that is at the heart of our gun fetish. But most would say that Australia is also in the macho category and their gun murder rate is 99% less than ours. Shouldn’t we be learning a lesson from them?

I for one am very much aligned with Shane on this and many other issues. It isn’t the way the world is and it doesn’t have to be the way the U.S. is!  We seem to be guided by a rather insignificant minority on this and several other issues.  When will the mammoth middle finally say “enough is enough” and take back control of our country? I am tired of seeing yet another picture of weeping children due to the gun violence around them……

Please all you people who parrot “Guns don’t kill people…” don’t bother to comment on this post. I am utterly not in the mood to listen to you right now if I ever am….

Our Obsession With Violence …..

Upon my recent return from the Middle East (with The Global Immersion Project), I was struck more than ever before at our Western infatuation around military aggression, violence and division. Not only are these the primary narratives we are fed through our major media outlets, they are the narratives we subconsciously embrace through the latest bestseller, box office hit or video game.  Violence, death and division have become normative. We are becoming numb to the very things that we – as ambassadors of hope and reconciliation – are to turn from as Resurrection People.  It is as though there is a strangle hold on our ability to see and participate in the stories of healing and new life.

SOURCE: Jon Huckins: Our Obsession With Violence & The Stories You’re Not Supposed to Hear | Red Letter Christians.

Nonviolence

I was eight years old when I gave my best friend a black eye over some dispute that I can’t even remember. Immediately after that incident I was totally devastated over the violence I had done. I promised myself that I would never strike or injure another person in that manner. I have lived up to that promise in the fifty odd years since then.
Along these same lines I have always felt that the various wars we have been involved in were totally against God’s will. The Quaker belief that God is in each of us and therefore if you kill another person you are killing God also. Through some pretty diligent study of Quaker practices I have found that I am very much aligned with many Quaker belief. Being a nonviolent person is not something that I suddenly decided to do; it is instead a vital part of my very being.