Unpublished letter submitted to the Toronto Star
Re: Violent 2018 sparks concern over what’s next, Headline, January 2, 2019.
What’s next – more violence of course. We know no other way in modern capitalist society and we fail to address the root causes of the problem – not gangs but the shutting down the arms industry. It is a massive, hugely profitable and powerful series of corporations that have some very serious political allies like the NRA in the United States. They dictate policy on guns and support the archaic 2nd Amendment rights of Americans who have one of the most violent societies in the world. They sell to both sides making the world a polluted wasteland of weapons. If government’s really represented the people they would have gone to the source of the problem and banned all guns and made the manufacturing or the possession of guns a criminal offense punishable by life in prison without parole. The only exceptions would be production for a small military and police forces for public safety. As the gun ban settled in the need for military and police forces to have weapons would be reduced. Imagine for just a moment what could be done to poverty if the trillions of dollars currently spent on military and police expenditures around the world could be spent instead on debt reduction, social programs and poverty elimination. Economic problems would be solved. It’s all a matter of priorities. “The market” doesn’t always determine the correct priorities – that is a capitalist myth. Governments would be shutting down the rich arm’s industry to stop all wars and all violence. Long guns, short guns, machine guns or cannons – they are all weapons that kill people and animals. There is no justification for them and no other suse for them. Hunters are a dinosaur group that kill what few defenceless wild animals we have left under the auspices of “sport.” There is no sport in baiting traps and shooting animals in the wild with a high-powered rifle from five hundred yards away to mount its head on a wall in your den to satisfy men’s macho egos. The few wild animals that are left must be protected. Weapons are a patriarchal holdover that we must rid ourselves of if we want to survive and evolve. It is also the right thing and the only thing to do.