Guns in the USA Update

In the last 8 years, gun sales have doubled from about 20 million to 40 million per year. (70% of sales are handguns.) We have more guns per capita than any other country, including Yemen, The Falkland Islands, Serbia and all the Scandanvian and European countries.

In the last 8 years, guns deaths have risen along with the increase in number of guns from about 32,000 to 40,000+ per year.

44% of American homes have guns, with the average gun owner possessing 5 firearms. Gun owners or their family members are 3x more likely to die from a gunshot than the non-gun-owning families.

As has been shown world-wide, as the number of untracked guns increases, so do the deaths, and visa versa. In Canada, for example, gun deaths went down 50% when buyers were required to have background checks and register their guns. In the United States, 40% of guns are sold without background checks or registration, and 191 our of every 192 guns in US are not registered.) 

In another example, in Australia mass shootings declined 95% over 10 years once semi-automatic firearms were restricted.

In an examination of 130 studies in 2016, death reduction occurred when stricter gun safety standards went into effect in 10 different countries around the world. (ABC). 

In the year following when the Brady Bill went into effect in 1993, 400,000 illegal guns were kept off the streets. Research shows us time and time again that the more safety controls that are put in place regarding gun use, the safer societies become.

Because of the popularity of civilian gun ownership in the United States, it's likely that we will overtake Brazil as having the highest rate of gun deaths per capita in the world. But it is helpful to know that if we moved in the direction of gun safety, honoring life like countries such as New Zealand, Japan, or Italy, many lives would be saved.

Most guns are purchased out of fear, and are used for "protection." However, 98% of all guns fired at a humans are used against people offensively, not defensively. In other words, except in the most violent corners of our nation, we are 50 times more likely to hurt someone else with our guns than for our guns to protect us.

We will never eliminate firearm deaths, but we could use successful strategies of other gun-toting countries to get us out of being in the top 1% most likely countries in the world to be killed by a gun.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Jan. 1, 2022

My thoughts as we begin the New Year: 

 

We all hope that this year will be better than the last.  We hope for freshness, newness, unity, and relief from stress.  We hope for health (and not just physical health).  We hope for joy, for peace, for an end to hate and violence.  We hope we will be reborn with new attitudes, new vigor, new excitement for what will come.

 

I am reminded of Albert Einstein’s quote:  “We cannot solve our problems with same level of thinking we used to create them.”

 

A Course in Miracles student will know that holding grudges, blaming others for wrongdoing, or getting angry at others or what’s happening in the world, is not only ineffective in solving the world’s challenges, it creates them.  It reinforces our false belief that judging others or pressuring others to change will solve our problems.

There’s another quote from Einstein where he whimsically, yet truthfully observes:  “Two things are infinite.  The universe and stupidity.  And I’m not sure about the universe.”

 

“Stupidity” sounds like a judgment to me; I would have chosen a different word.  But I believe Einstein is referring to how readily we accept misinformation, the lack of desire to seek truth, and how we forego love in favor of condemnation or thinking we're superior to others, or think that violence (verbal or physical) can change the world.  This is trying to solve the world’s problems with same kind of thinking that created them.

 

This must change or the world will not change.

 

If we want a better 2022, it is each of us that must change.  We must embrace love & forgiveness.  We must see people for what they are capable of, not for how they are acting in the present.  We must see the light in each other instead of the darkness. We must release the idea that resisting others, doing harm to others, or seeing ourselves as better or smarter, or more deserving than others, will somehow move us forward.

 

I want a better 2022 than 2021.  Do you?  In order for me to create a better world, I must be better at loving, better at supporting, better at seeing every human being as my equal, better at being sensitive the needs of those different from me.  I must be better at caring instead of rejecting, better at welcoming rather than excluding.  I must give up judgment of others and turn it into understanding.  I must trade my desire to be right for a desire for what’s best for everyone, not just myself.  

So, here are some of my intentions for the coming year.  If you see fit, join me in whichever of these make sense to you.  Ask yourself, how can I change my thinking this year that will lead to a better 2022?

 

1)   I commit to understanding my neighbor’s behavior instead of judging it.

 

2)   I trust the Light that I am to be a positive influence, instead of doubting whether I can make a difference.

 

3)   I forgive without exception any behaviors that I disagree with.  I acknowledge everyone is doing their best.

 

4)   I will forgive myself for my mistakes, as I forgive others for theirs.

 

5)   I will have empathy, not condemnation, for those whose internal pain causes them to inflict pain on others.

 

6)   I will watch for those who have less than I’ve been given, and seek to share what I have with them, as a sign I trust I always have enough, and that everyone is as worthy as I to be blessed.

 

What intentions would you add?  How will your thinking be different from the past, so that the hope you have for a better world this year becomes a reality?  

 

I agree with Einstein that only upgrading our thinking, our awareness of truth, our willingness to change ourselves, has any hope of changing the world we experience.

 

I am committed to doing my part.