Lane murder: America’s gun culture has to change

[LuckyTheDog]

My latest blog post for the Detroit News. As usual, the paper's conservative readers let me have it in the comments section.

After the shooting death of Australian Christopher Lane, purportedly at the hands of three “bored” Oklahoma teenagers, it makes sense to reflect on the role of guns and violence in our society. But on “The Rush Limbaugh Show” this week, the conversation was all about race.

In case anybody didn’t know that Lane was white and two of his three alleged attackers are black, Limbaugh made a point of discussing it at length. At one point, he wondered aloud why others in the media would not call the murder a racial incident.

“No matter where you look in the media, it’s not a racial event,” Limbaugh said on his Aug. 21 broadcast. “Nothing about [it] is racist. This is the epitome of media irresponsibility. It’s a classic illustration of just what role the mainstream media is playing in the destruction of American culture and society.”

Limbaugh went on to criticize reporters for focusing “on the gun aspect” of the crime, instead of the respective skin tones of the victim and the accused. As usual, Limbaugh was being wrong-headed.

MORE HERE: http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2013/08/23/americas-gun-culture/

[dkf]

1. This isn't about guns or race...it's about a lack of human feeling.

How does a person become so callous that they feel nothing at actively hurting and killing a perfect stranger, or worse yet enjoy doing so.

That is psychopathic behavior.

[Loudly]

2. Disarming America may very well be about race.

But it is also about every other axe to grind.

So just do it.

[Eleanors38]

3. The Aussie and the elderly vet were both murdered by "thrill killers,"

making their waste water marks in the faces of a society they both hate and so desparately need in order to validate their power within it; this is how they become legitimized in a celebrity-driven culture which awards ever-increasing numbers weaker & weaker sparks of fame.

And they'll do it with any weapon they can get their hands on.

[beevul]

4. No. No it doesn't.

"gun culture" didn't cause the murder in question.

"Gun culture" seems only to block one avenue to reducing gun violence - the one in which the pro-control folks want to reduce magazine capacities, ban black rifles, and so forth.

Several other non-gun related avenues at working to reduce gun violence are open to those folks, but strangely, they seem...less interested in them, than they do about attacking "gun culture".

[LuckyTheDog]

5. I disagree.

I also think you missed the part where I talked about raising kids with a different message about violence.