Guns & Butter

It's really hard to know which kills more of us--guns or butter. Probably cholesterol kills more, but its victims are usually assuming a certain risk. Gun deaths are different. Just being an American raises your risk of dying by ballistic lead poisoning.

Yes, I know that guns don't kill people, people do. Well, actually it's usually the bullets. Guns do however help accelerate the bullets to speeds where their impact can kill. However, since we cannot get rid of guns, bullets or people--and the recent spate of multiple killing events were perpetrated by people in legal possession of their guns--what do we do besides mourn?

I also know that we cannot do the single most effective thing to reduce violence, other than banning semi-automatic weapons, and that is to censor the violence in the media. The extreme violence we depict in movies and videogames has to have a toxic effect on society and a corrosive effect on the soul of our nation.

We, as a nation of advertisers, cannot believe that what we see repeated again and again does not have consequences in the choices and bad reflexes of people. While it is true that only a small number of people are influenced directly, the number is great enough that we should do the only thing left: Buy Mylar Bullet Resistant Vests.
©2009 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.org