A National Service Proposal — Part 2
Addressing gun violence and social discord as remedial civics lessons
In a previous article, I wrote about how we might fix the problem of gun violence in the United States. In that article, I proposed that a system of national service could help. That, like the right loves to say, guns are not the problem, people are.
Now, I don’t wholly buy that argument. I like guns. I’ve enjoyed shooting, both competitively and on my own, for a great deal of my life. At one time, when times were tough, I hunted. It fed me and my family when money was scarce. I enjoy hunting, but I don’t enjoy killing. I still hunt, but my preferred weapon is a camera. I firmly believe that hunting is a skill that most people should possess because civilization is fragile and we need to eat.
I feel the same about small-scale farming. This does not justify just anyone having a gun. Daily, we see that this is true.
Guns are a problem. But as previously noted, they are not THE problem.
That, in my opinion, is a fractured and fractious society that has not learned to hold common values. I say this because we are not the only country with a lot of guns in private hands. Yes, we lead that pack, but we are not alone. Yemen is at war, which makes it rather hard to judge…
