Spike Lee's new film "Chi-Raq" is about gun violence. He wants people to walk away with a sense that...
Spike Lee's new film "Chi-Raq" is about gun violence. He wants people to walk away with a sense that we need to solve this problem.
But guns do not make us violence. Where we have high gun violence, we also have high rates of non-firearm violence; and where we have low violence rates, we often also have lots of guns.
It's not just that guns do not cause violence, it's that there is not even a correlation between guns and violence. We do have violence problems in this country, but the more we blame guns, the harder it gets to actually solve the problem of violence.
On Meet the Press, Chuck Todd asks why Chicago gets less focus than Sandy Hook and Charleston. Lee says it's because people get numb. But it's not: it's because people recognize that Chicago has systemic problems with a culture of violence that we, on the outside, are powerless to do anything about. For big events with single shooters, we hold out hope that maybe there's something we can do about it.
I am not a fatalist. I'm not. I am not saying there's nothing we can do about violence. I am saying that we cannot stop violence by going after guns, and I say this because the data demonstrates there is no correlation between guns and violence.
President Obama says we are not more violence, implying that the only difference between us and less violent countries is guns, but he's completely wrong. We absolutely are more violent. We need to change the culture, and that starts from within.
But guns do not make us violence. Where we have high gun violence, we also have high rates of non-firearm violence; and where we have low violence rates, we often also have lots of guns.
It's not just that guns do not cause violence, it's that there is not even a correlation between guns and violence. We do have violence problems in this country, but the more we blame guns, the harder it gets to actually solve the problem of violence.
On Meet the Press, Chuck Todd asks why Chicago gets less focus than Sandy Hook and Charleston. Lee says it's because people get numb. But it's not: it's because people recognize that Chicago has systemic problems with a culture of violence that we, on the outside, are powerless to do anything about. For big events with single shooters, we hold out hope that maybe there's something we can do about it.
I am not a fatalist. I'm not. I am not saying there's nothing we can do about violence. I am saying that we cannot stop violence by going after guns, and I say this because the data demonstrates there is no correlation between guns and violence.
President Obama says we are not more violence, implying that the only difference between us and less violent countries is guns, but he's completely wrong. We absolutely are more violent. We need to change the culture, and that starts from within.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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