Dear Editor,
There is a culture in this country that must be changed.
We must start at the family level with this change and hopefully it will transcend to the community, national, and international level.
I am referring to the gun violence culture. There are so many times that I would pick up a newspaper, view the local news on television or read an internet article about a fatal shooting somewhere in the area where I live or somewhere else in this nation. It should sadden me, but I would quickly recover from my distress because sadly killings like this have become the norm. I had become desensitized to it all.
Our world has and always will be filled with some sort of violence. Is it human nature to have a hatred so bad for someone that our only path is to kill to satisfy that hate? Does that type of behavior start at the family level? If so, is there a chance for a change in that structure?
It seems so easy for someone to pick up a gun and pull a trigger to settle arguments. Sometimes just walking away from a bad situation can keep things from escalating to a fatality. We can't always walk away, but we can try.
I know someone can be killed with any form of weapon. A gun does not have to be the weapon of choice. A knife, blunt instrument, or an explosive device can be just as effective. I am not naive; I know banning guns won't solve this problem with society. Maybe guns shouldn't be so readily available to every deviant or deranged individual who desires one. There are times when I am conflicted with my thoughts on this subject.
On Sunday May 31, 2020, all these conflicts came into my world much stronger.
My 27-year-old son was murdered in a senseless shooting in Texas. He had no weapon. His only action was going to pick up his four-year-old daughter in a meeting with a former girlfriend. He was shot through a car window twice in the chest.
He was traveling with a friend who had his weapon and used it to shoot the other guy in self-defense. His friend probably saved his own life as well as the lives of my granddaughter and her mother by shooting the assailant, even though he only wounded him.
Now you understand my conflict. How can I be against letting every fool have a gun when someone with one was trying to protect my family members? I can't change the past but I wish the other young man would have tempered his anger and just walked away.
But he didn't. Now my sons' life has ended and a piece of me has died all because of this gun culture. It seems to me that there's a double standard or alternate view when it comes to guns. We have the urban part (where people need to have a weapon just to feel protected) and the rural part (where the weapons are used for hunting, protection, and recreation).
I truly understand the need to feel protected and also exercise our rights as a US citizen to own a weapon but we have to be better in our judgement. I implore us all to try to just walk away from our violent impulses, and maybe this habit will transmit to others in our entire community.
Maybe some day we can discover a way to merge the two cultures and make our world and our community safer.
Lawrence Woodberry
