What does the Future Entail for a Country in which Everyone is Armed?

Thanks to the inexhaustible efforts of the gun industry and gun lobby together with the remarkable assistance of the United States Supreme Court, the ownership of guns in all of its various lethal configurations has been declared and sanctioned as an inalienable right of every citizen; a right supposedly embedded within the U.S. constitution as the Second Amendment. A straightforward reading of this succinct amendment would demonstrate that this a rather far fetched interpretation especially considering the advances made in weapons technology in the modern era where unimaginable destruction can be done by a single shooter.

This insanity has ultimately led to the current state of the nation in which the use of deadly violence initiated by private citizen(s) often leading to mass killings perpetrated against the gathering of ordinary American citizens in such commonplace venues such as schools, universities, churches and synagogues, bars and clubs, concerts, shopping malls or simply on neighborhood streets has become quite commonplace.

The collective impact of these unsettling and traumatic events has been to implant a feeling of trepidation and fear into the minds of many who have become fearful about the safety of themselves, their children, their families and their communities. This feeling of fear and instability can inspire even more violence and needless death.

There is a real danger to the society at large should these chaotic and deadly incidents continue with regularity, and that danger is that it may lead to a bizarre and surreal normalization of the use of deadly violence against nearly anyone at any time. Such a state of existence would be essentially untenable, for it would undermine the kind of stability that is an absolute requirement for any civilized society.

Should this insanity continue unabated, our future viability as a free and democratic people remains an open question.