Recent polling suggests that Americans are very worried about gun violence. A Quinnipiac University poll taken from Oct. 26 to 30, right after the Maine shooting, found that 46 percent of registered voters worried about becoming a victim of a mass shooting themselves. That matches a high set in July 2022 in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting at Robb Elementary School, and is 9 points higher than a low of 37 percent in December 2017, the year the survey began asking the question.
Americans also feel pessimistic that anything will change. Indeed, 68 percent don’t believe the federal government will do anything to reduce gun violence within the next year, per the Quinnipiac poll.
It definitely could be read that way. Although I’m staunchly against guns for the reason that people are monsters and are trigger happy, I’m starting to see (especially as a targeted demographic) that carrying a weapon maybe the only sensible thing left in a ridiculously monstrous world. If it’s gonna be them versus me, I’m gonna make damn sure I win that battle. Let the last man with the last gun reap the rewards - a blasted earth that’s no more than a nuked cemetery and a few bits of contaminated food and water here and there.
I don’t see the world quite as nihilistically. I believe the majority of people aren’t violent or monstrous, but I do believe that the current structure of our society encourages people to be that way. Look at the state of our politics: We are told that if we aren’t outraged by one thing or another, we must be ignorant or apathetic at best, evil and complicit at worst.
That’s good though, I hope you never do see it as nihilistically as I do. At least you have some modicum of hope, and that’s something that I hope you can hold onto.
I’m reminded of the passage from “Lost Horizon” where the elder priest says “look at the world today. Is there anything more pitiful? What madness there is! What blindness! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity crashing headlong against each other.”
That was published in 1933. And not much has changed in the world of politics or people.