I need a literal gun fetish to hold in my hands while I revisit over and over again the game/cinematic fantasies I have enjoyed in which GUN guarantees that I defy death and am Free (twisted in this context into Can't Be Prevented From Doing Whatever I Want).

 

Actual children being murdered nationwide as a direct result of these fantasies are objectively irrelevant, except insofar as they engorge the subjective fantasy and lead to more power for those who enable more fetish rituals: quantity purchasing and consuming/ fetish hoarding, volume ammunition discharge and munitions detonation, rallying and supporting insurrection with other party members similarly devoted, raging at those designated by party leadership, admiration of those who target, intimidate, and kill those designated as enemies, collective self-delusion/denial of directly related consequences, etc. Like the racism which shares its origin/root, gun violence is one of our mass pathologies which will continue to lead to mass murder until it is treated at scale.

 

 

How many children would you guess are killed with guns PER DAY in the U.S.? These figures are just for this year, so far. https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/query/a1dbece6-1434-49fe-88f5-3c8316431f0c. Guess how the #UntiedStates compare to the rest of the world in mass murder? We love to stand alone.

 

I am a gun owner. I do not require, under any circumstances, many guns or those geared for military use. I want guns to be tools again rather than primarily death porn power symbols. I want to trust my neighbors again. We have come untied. The shared dream which moored us to a more realistic idea that weds freedom and democracy no longer unites us. The only hands remaining to reforge those bonds are yours and mine. Tomorrow will be too late. People devoted to actual democracy must become citizens foremost, use their time and money to support politicians with a humane record who clearly put democracy ahead of personal interest. Anyone who can demonstrate this ability must enter politics at whatever level of political activity wherever they can. The alternative is stark, white like a corpse, ash burned until it can only belong to the wind, and is consuming your children. Rise up.