Gun violence and school shootings are not caused by the rise of machines or inanimate objects … they are the product of our broken culture. How broken is our culture? The elite media thinks only a fraction of gun deaths merit its full coverage.
Why doesn’t the media report on the common gun deaths that happen every few minutes nationally with the same fervor as it does school shootings? Are the children and adults on the streets of LA, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Newark, New Haven, Camden, and innumerable other American towns and cities less important?
Maybe those victims are getting what they deserve? Is that it? I doubt it.
The media is focused on one subset of shootings because for the media, school shootings are good business, a great story, and a useful political tool to drive outrage in support of a political agenda. The media don’t get ratings for covering all the other shooting victims.
Mostly, however, the media designs its reporting on school shootings to drive the anti-gun agenda. The media preys on the fears of Americans who believe their kids are and should be safe in gun free, government schools.
This morning, I read the caterwauling of a left-leaning, resistance-loving, mom on social who described the recent Santa Fe school shooting as part of a “crisis.” No, honey, it’s not. It’s bad, and its tragic, but statistically, it’s not even close to a crisis. The media coverage is now driving these shootings and they are also thriving off your perception of a crisis.
Suicide … that’s a crisis. More than 60% of gun victims die at their own hand. Let’s cover that just like we do the school shootings and have a national conversation about that issue.
Outside of suicide, the vast majority of shooting victims are criminals engaged in criminal activity. Americans, however, are trained by our media to save their outrage only for those whom we think don’t “deserve” to be shot.
You might ask, why does a conservative like me give a damn about criminals killing each other? Why equate all these other shootings to school shootings and kids who don’t “deserve” to be gunned down in a classroom?
Mostly, I am outraged by the lack of outrage over all these other deaths spawned by our sick culture and the refusal of Americans and the media to address the real issues. It’s not the guns, stupid. It’s the people. And yes, I’m angry and frustrated by the media’s coverage of these killings and its use of them as a propaganda tool.
You bet … no second-grader in a suburban school in Connecticut should never be gunned down while huddled in fear. You know what … neither should some 14-year-old wanna-be thug caught up in one of the left’s urban prisons where crime, drugs, violence, fatherlessness, famililessness, and joblessness are a way of life.
Whatever criminals deserve, America deserves none of this. Still, Americans must face the reality that we get the culture we build and promote.
Modern America has created a sick society where family and faith are fading, and where outrageousness is the gold standard. Broken families lead to broken children. That leads to a broken community and a broken and dying culture.
These school shootings are horrific, but in nearly every one the story is the same. It is a broken human from a house filled with broken, sick, or absent and irresponsible humans. The left wants to connect guns as the unifying theme of these shootings. The unifying theme of these shootings, however, is the direct and proximate result of an amoral, indecent, uncivil society that reflects … ironically … the ideas and ideals of the left.
In whatever city street or in whatever godforsaken school where these murders happen, the killer is almost never the product of a normal, loving, educated, responsible, intact, family. Indeed, if we studied every shooter in this country involved in criminality, we would be hard-pressed to find but a handful who meet that criteria.
Still, the radical left blames the guns. Christ, that is stupid. Sure, remember in the 50’s and 60’s when toy manufacturers gloried guns and every kid wanted and expected a toy gun or six-shooter for Christmas or a birthday? Why no crisis of school shootings then? It’s not the guns, liberals … it’s the culture you foisted on us.
In short … it is the culture that is killing our people. Yes, the sick and twisted are using guns. But they turn to those guns after we make them sick and twisted.
I’d prefer to fix the culture … which is the best way to protect all Americans.
If the media were to do its job, it would cover all these murders. In the first paragraph of every story would be the complete family history of the killer. Then you would know that a corrupt culture kills.
Right now, a self-serving, incompetent, and corrupt elite media is contributing to these school shootings and then profiting from them. Meanwhile, on the mean streets of America’s lost cities, the decent people duck for their lives as they run an obstacle course of dead bodies about whom know one cares.
That’s what happens your culture is dying or dead.
Just keep blaming the guns … I am sure the people have nothing to do with this.
Author: Richard Kelsey
Richard Kelsey is the Editor-in-Chief of Committed Conservative.
He is a trial Attorney and author of a #11 best-selling book on Amazon written on higher education, “Of Serfs and Lords: Why College Tuition is Creating a Debtor Class”
Rich is also the author of the new Murder-Mystery series, “The ABC’s of Murder,” book one is titled, “Adultery.”
Rich is a former Assistant Law School Dean and Law Professor. At Mason Law Kelsey conceived of, planned, and brought to fruition Mason’s Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property, known as CPIP, drawing on his expertise as a former CEO of a technology company specializing in combating cyber-fraud.
In 2014 he was elected by the graduating class as the faculty speaker at their graduation.
He is a regular commentator on legal and political issues in print, radio and on TV. Rich has appeared on hundreds of stations as a legal expert or political commentator. He provided the legal analysis for all stages of the Bob McDonnell trial and appeal for numerous outlets including NPR and WMAL.
Rich also writes on occasion for the American Spectator and CNSNews.com.
In his free time, Rich is part of the baseball mafia of Northern Virginia, serving on numerous boards and as a little league and travel baseball coach.
His Twitter handle is @richkelsey.
