Where to begin to address gun violence in America demands education from leaders about the issues in the broader context of who we are in a democratic, pluralistic republic. Having said that sentence, how many readers understand it? You will have to have a university masters degree, and that's a problem.
"About a quarter of American adults, 26 percent, have a high school diploma. Another 21 percent have attained a bachelor’s degree, while 9.3 percent of adults over 25 have a master’s degree. Almost 2 percent of Americans have a doctoral degree, and 1.5 percent have earned a professional degree that requires study beyond a four-year bachelor’s course."
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/326995-census-more-americans-have-college-degrees-than-ever-beforeDemocracy demands an educated population.
"That’s why Thomas Jefferson said a free press wasn’t enough to guarantee a healthy democracy. As he wrote to Charles Yancey, a prominent Virginia legislator, in 1816, 'Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.'"
http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/winter11/literacy.cfmToday, being literate isn't sufficient because the nation and world are more complex, sophisticated, and competitive. Elected politicians and leaders have a difficult time being honest with the US population. Someone needs to say, "Get smarter. You are too ignorant for your good."
Most Americans are clueless about the US Constitution and how the process is intended to keep our laws and regulations current with the needs of our times.
Today, a tyrannical leader with an unAmerican congress is allowing the American democracy to erode. We are in decline because voters permitted their worst behaviors and ignorance to be exploited.
While the nation would be better off to recalibrate the Second Amendment that is the right to bear arms, it is unthinkable in the presence of a regime that is undermining democracy.
I wrote in my book, How to Select an American President by James A. George and James A. Rodger (c) 2017 Archway Publishing that the average American voter has a 10th-grade education. So I pondered, why not let 10th graders vote. In the presence of a failed state that cannot protect children, the wisdom of giving them the right to vote is more apparent.
"Calls for new gun laws are falling on deaf ears
Renewed calls for stricter gun controls in the wake of a school shooting in Florida that left 17 dead are falling on deaf ears.
Legislators in states across the country have delayed, defeated or refused to take up new measures to prevent more gun violence — despite the impassioned calls of victims from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla."
The Hill email
Educate Americans. Strengthen their intellect. Empower the youth who apparently know better than adults.
ReplyDeleteMore guns equals more harm, researchers say. That's been a consistent finding in the literature, including a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study in October 2016 that reviewed the evidence on guns at universities.
ReplyDelete"Increasing gun availability in campus environments could make far more common acts of aggression, recklessness, or self-harm more deadly and, thus, have a deleterious impact on the safety of students, faculty, and staff," the authors concluded concluded.