GUN VIOLENCE

GUN VIOLENCE

Lately, every time you turn on the news, there is another mass shooting, another murder, another gang shooting, or another police involved murder.  Our world has become very violent.  I blame the NRA for a good portion of this violence.

The NRA was established in the late 1800’s to promote gun safety.  In the 1980’s, however, gun sales started to decline.  Gun corporations started taking over the NRA. Now the NRA’s board of directors is filled with CEO’s of gun corporations.  They turned the direction of the NRA from gun safety to promoting gun ownership. They take their members’ dues and use it for lobbying. They managed to successfully reverse and block any gun restriction laws presented by congress. They pushed open carry laws in states.  It is now easier in most states to buy a gun than it is to vote. Gun sales have skyrocketed. This climate of everyone having a gun is a main cause of the violence.

Police have to accept a major portion of the cause too.  Police departments are not properly screening candidates for aggression or racism problems. They are not properly training their policemen in handling tough situations. They are over arming them with military style equipment, giving them the impression they are fighting a war instead of protecting and serving citizens.  So many police are either angry or scared when they approach suspects. The climate of everyone owning a gun increases the violence. Their fear is increased if they are even slightly racist.  When someone is shot 9-15 times, that indicates either aggression, anger, or fear.

Our society bears a good portion of the violence blame.  We are conditioned since birth to think that certain people or species are of less value than ourselves. If we do not grow out of that thinking, we are more likely to disregard the lives of others.  We are conditioned since birth to eat violence and to think it tastes good. "Hate on your dial" shows like Fox News, 700 club, and talk radio promote hatred, violence, racism, sexism and animal cruelty.   Commanders in war always have their soldiers eat huge portions of meat before battle, because they know it will make their soldiers more aggressive and more violent.

Groups that are trying to promote peace and rights for all are often put on the FBI’s terrorist lists. Animal right groups who have killed zero people are considered terrorists, while violent groups, like anti-abortionists who have killed 100’s of people, are not on the list.

We are all one tribe, one people, one species—Earthlings. No matter what race, sex or species we are, we are all connected.  The loss of one of us touches all of us. The sooner we realize this; the sooner the violence will end.

If you truly want to end the violence, start living a more compassionate life yourself.  Go vegan and know true peace.

For more information:

Please watch Earthlings at Earthlings.com

Please read Our Conscious Planet by Neil Pine and World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle. 

HUNTING PROMOTES VIOLENCE

HUNTING PROMOTES VIOLENCE

 

There comes a time in life, when you must reflect upon what you were taught, whether what you were taught is true and how what you were taught affects your current life. That time is long past due when it comes to hunting. Hunting propaganda seems to be passed down from generation to generation. Talking with a hunter can be a most exasperating experience. Most hunters will call themselves “conservationists”. They will proudly take pictures or display their kills. Since childhood they have been taught that this is appropriate behavior. This is what you do to be “a man”. They then teach their children to kill and their sons learn that they are not men unless they have killed something. Daughters are taught to kill to show they are just as good as men. It is very sad, that they actually believe these things.

Hunters will call themselves “conservationists”.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Hunting hurts all species. Hunters are looking for a proud trophy, something to show the world how great they are. So they kill the biggest and healthiest of the species. This leaves the sickly and weaker to breed, making gene pools weaker. Chronic Wasting Disease was directly caused by hunting. When wolves, coyotes, and other predators hunt, they go after only the sickly and the weak. Unfortunately, hunters kill these animals and leave nature a mess.

Hunters will tell you how they control populations. Again, nothing is further from the truth. As I mentioned above, killing the biggest and healthiest leaves only the sick and weak left to breed. In predators, this can be devastating to their populations. Here in Wisconsin, we have a deer hunting season. Hundreds of thousands of deer are killed in a two week period. This artificial population decrease actually increases the deer population, as pregnant deer will increase the number of fetuses they carry to accommodate the lower population. This is called “compensatory reproduction”. States with the most deer hunting, have the highest deer populations. In a natural world, there isn’t such a thing as “overpopulation”.

Hunting parties are big here in Wisconsin. Hunters get together, get drunk and go off to hunt. I imagine they get their “courage” to kill from a bottle. How can something that you have to get drunk to do be anything worth doing? You may say there is something very wrong with these people that they make a party out of killing. But this makes perfect sense. It takes great courage to go against the norm, against the status quo. Having a lot of people doing the same thing makes it easier, even if it’s doing something wrong. In 1951, Solomon Asch did a conformity study. He found that 75% of his subjects would give an obvious wrong answer just to go along with the majority of the group. So even though, these hunters think they are being “tough” by killing innocent animals, they are cowards. They need a group.

Bow hunting is the most inhumane hunting. 50% of animals are cripple and not recovered. They die agonizing deaths from blood loss and infections.

Psychology and criminology studies have shown that violence toward animals often leads to violence toward people. Albert Schweitzer wrote,” Violent acts against animals are considered recognized as indicators of a disease of the psyche that is not limited to animals. Anyone who has once accustomed to the life of any living being as unworthy of life, there is a risk that one day he also comes to the conclusion that human life is worthless.”

It is interesting to note, that the one common denominator with most of the school shootings, is hunting was big in the families of the shooters. Parents encourage violence of their children, and that is what you wind up with. Teaching children to hunt, should be considered child abuse. There is definitely something wrong with people who derive amusement from an animal’s fear or suffering. Serial killers often start by abusing animals, including hunting them.

States like Wisconsin, continue to encourage hunting for one simple reason—money. Animal agriculture encourages hunting because animals like deer, wolves, bears, bison, etc. either threaten or compete with their livestock. We can end this barbaric practice very simply. Go vegan. Let’s take the money and power away from animal agriculture. Let’s stop encouraging animal abuse. Let’s start encouraging and teaching compassion.