Guns.

Editor,

American men are groomed to be violent. Look at the glorification of war we were just inundated with on Memorial Day. And of course boys are admonished every step of their way to "be a man."

Who will drop those bombs and shoot those cannons for the Imperial ruling elite if American men are not fed a diet of violent fantasies and seduced by the awesome firepower of guns they can own themselves?

Nothing is done to limit guns in the USA because the Empire runs on guns. Every now and then someone snaps or becomes obsessed with morbid plans and shoots a lot of people. Domestic collateral damage. We shake our heads when drones rack up collateral damage abroad. People dead on American streets are collateral damage here.

This is what living in a militaristic nation looks like. Death abroad, death at home. Combat vets are hired as cops, view the public as enemy combatants, and gun people down.

The point is this: government is not going to do anything about the guns in Americans' hands because the posture of the USA towards the outside world relies on guns and depends on men to shoot them. Gun violence in the USA, misogyny, and violent insecure men shooting guns are instruments and consequences of American militarism.

Re: "Why Can’t Doctors Identify Killers?" (5/28/2014)