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Gun Violence Is a Result of Our Broken Culture
Townhall.com ^ | June 24, 2021 | Laura Hollis

Posted on 06/24/2021 5:26:42 AM PDT by Kaslin

It's shameful that it took so long to declare a national holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. But the nation's first official Juneteenth holiday weekend got off to an inauspicious start, to say the very least.

CNN reported gun violence in multiple locations, including my own small town of Granger, Indiana. My teenage son works at the family-owned grocery store in the same little shopping center where five people were shot (one fatally) at a "Juneteenth Summer Bash" party held at a tavern. When I dropped him off at work the next morning, the parking lot was cordoned off with crime scene tape and homicide investigation vehicles. Nearby restaurants, still struggling after the COVID-19 lockdowns, had to close on Father's Day, their windows and doors pockmarked with bullet holes.

CNN describes these as "mass shootings," a term which has typically been used to describe a deranged lone shooter firing randomly into a crowd. In fact, available information suggests that most of these incidents -- including the one in Granger -- had multiple shooters and involved parties, drinking and arguments.

In other words, these were not the acts of lone lunatics but the type of violence that has come to plague our cities on a regular basis.

Let's take Chicago -- which didn't even make CNN's list -- as an example. A Puerto Rican couple, Gyovanny Arzuaga and Yasmin Perez, were dragged out of their car in the city's Humboldt Park neighborhood Saturday night and shot at point-blank range. No apparent reason. Both died, leaving behind two small children. Arzuaga and Perez were among 10 people killed in Chicago over the holiday weekend, with another 65 gunshot victims who survived.

On Monday, another seven people were shot and killed in Chicago. Nearly 1,500 people have been shot in the city so far this year, of which nearly 300 died. More than a third of all Chicago's gunshot victims are young Black males. Ever-larger numbers of these gunshot victims are children. And a disturbing number of the shooters are themselves teens or young adults.

An article from 2016 about gun violence in Chicago was blunt. "The numbers are horrifying," author Devin Foley wrote. Seventy-five percent of the homicide victims and 71% of the murderers in Chicago that year were Black. Things have not improved. The Chicago Department of Public Health released a report last week -- "The State of Health for Blacks in Chicago" -- which shows that the homicide rate for Blacks in the city is nine times higher than it is for non-Black residents.

Predictably, the latest round of gun violence has prompted our politicians and pundits to blame the same causes and call for the same fixes: "We need gun control"; "We need a different kind of policing"; "We need more federal funding."

But none of these proposed solutions would fix the real problem because none of them addresses the real problem. As serious as these issues might otherwise be, what is destroying this country is not the prevalence of guns. It isn't the police. It isn't systemic racism. It isn't poverty or income inequality.

The problem is this country's sick sexual culture, its marginalization of fathers and the corresponding destruction of the family.

Since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s, Americans have permitted the sexualization of virtually every aspect of American culture by institutions with profound influence over it, including the entertainment industry, academia, major media and corporations. Advertising, books, TV, film, music and the internet all promote immediate gratification and irresponsible sex. This is not confined to adults; even publications, programming and products directed at preschool and grade school children blithely promote exploration of sexual preferences, risky sexual practices, gender confusion and abortion.

One predictable result is an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases in youth (ages 15 to 24), not to mention increases in substance abuse, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. Even worse, the sexual free-for-all has decimated the American family. In 1950, only 17% of Black children were born to single mothers. According to the Brookings Institute, in 1965, slightly more than 20% of Black children and 3.1% of white children were born to single mothers, but by 1990, those numbers had spiked to 64% of Black children and 18% of white children. In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported those numbers were 70% for Blacks and 28.2% for whites. Overall, fully 40% of all American children are now born to an unmarried mother.

This is a societal catastrophe. But we refuse to connect the dots, because doing so would mean admitting that the sexual revolution went off the rails. And that runs afoul of both those who make millions selling sex and those who need constant validation for their own behavior. As a result, the innocence, health and well-being of children has been sacrificed for adults' sexual selfishness. It is no accident that girls see themselves increasingly as sexual objects or that fatherless young men, without adequate role models for healthy behaviors, fall into deeply destructive ones. Without stability, without security, without a proper sense of themselves, they seek validation in sexual conquest, belonging in gang membership, and excitement in drug use and violence.

We do not need more "sex positivity," better contraception or more access to abortion. What we need is renewed cultural recognition of the scientific fact that sexual behavior is the way the species reproduces and that the children produced by sexual activity thrive best when in stable families with two married parents.

We can change all the laws, defund all the police, add millions of social workers, and spend every last dollar on poverty alleviation and social welfare programs. But unless we are honest about what's really destroying us, unless we make a concerted commitment to change our culture's attitude about sex and the family, we will continue to hurtle headlong into chaos.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; family; guns; sexualrevol
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1 posted on 06/24/2021 5:26:42 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Its more than gun violence. Take a stroll through Baltimore and watch the fights, particularly on any white or asian stupid enough to walk through Baltimore. Not even robberies, just plain old beatings.


2 posted on 06/24/2021 5:31:02 AM PDT by Browns Ultra Fan (ua)
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To: Kaslin

She starts out catering to the Marxist left: “It’s shameful that it took so long to declare a national holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.” -— It used to be called “Decoration Day,” now called “Memorial Day.”


3 posted on 06/24/2021 5:31:40 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: Kaslin
Sad, but true. Not my culture of course, but then again at this point, it's their world and I'm just living in it.


4 posted on 06/24/2021 5:33:16 AM PDT by CodeJockey (Dum Spiro, Pugno)
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To: Kaslin

“It’s shameful that it took so long to declare a national holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.”

Actually it’s not.

L


5 posted on 06/24/2021 5:33:17 AM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is. )
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To: Kaslin

Economic restructuring is part of the reason marriage is falling off and the working class becomes underclass.

Offshore jobs, import laborers, drive the working man’s wage down, and force the taxpayer to be the provider. Women have less incentive to marry, men less incentive to be good men.


6 posted on 06/24/2021 5:33:37 AM PDT by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate other.)
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To: Kaslin

Children not being taught gun safety and respect. People using them for crime as always. These kids grow up to be gun owners.


7 posted on 06/24/2021 5:34:09 AM PDT by glimmerman70
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To: Kaslin

Not our society, the black society. They segregate themselves by lifestyle. Absent fathers, sleazy behavior, no regard for human life. It is not like that in my small town.


8 posted on 06/24/2021 5:35:31 AM PDT by exnavy
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To: exnavy

Refusal to assimilate is the guarantee of social instability for ANY society that invites minorities ... then, allows (and even encourages) minorities’ refusal to assimilate!


9 posted on 06/24/2021 5:40:42 AM PDT by SMARTY (In most places in the country, voting is...a right and a duty...in Chicago it's a sport. D. Gregory)
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To: heartwood

Men have an even greater incentive not to marry than the women do.


10 posted on 06/24/2021 5:44:46 AM PDT by MachIV
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To: Browns Ultra Fan

this was called gang violence at one time


11 posted on 06/24/2021 5:50:09 AM PDT by Paperpusher
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To: Kaslin

Not my culture.

Diversity is NOT strength, it promotes weakness.


12 posted on 06/24/2021 5:52:11 AM PDT by larrytown (No matter how much the cats fight there always seems to be plenty of kittens. - Abraham Lincoln)
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To: CodeJockey
Don't worry citizen, BLM QRF (quick reaction force) is on the way to help defeat white supremacy!


13 posted on 06/24/2021 5:54:21 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (Delete FB, TWTR, GOOGL, AMZN, YHOO, Gmail/chrome. Use Gab, Brave + DDG, VPN, Freerepublic )
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To: Kaslin

Lack of...........................


14 posted on 06/24/2021 5:55:27 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Kaslin

Lack of...........................


15 posted on 06/24/2021 5:55:27 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: larrytown
Diversity is NOT strength, it promotes weakness.

Double plus ungood speaking citizen! BLM/Antifa TPB (Thought Protection Brigade) is on the way to correct you, or else!:


16 posted on 06/24/2021 5:58:03 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (Delete FB, TWTR, GOOGL, AMZN, YHOO, Gmail/chrome. Use Gab, Brave + DDG, VPN, Freerepublic )
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To: Kaslin
Bidens gun control ideas will fix this. By the way I was hunting yesterday with my AR-15 with a 100 round magazine and ran into this:


17 posted on 06/24/2021 6:00:56 AM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: maddog55

Did I hear Biden say yesterday something like “if you’re buying guns to prevent government overreach you will need to buy some F-15’s and maybe some nuclear weapons?”
Was he saying that he is willing to use such weapons against civil unrest?


18 posted on 06/24/2021 6:26:11 AM PDT by snoringbear (,W,E.oGovernment is the Pimp, )
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To: exnavy
"Not our society, the black society. They segregate themselves by lifestyle. Absent fathers, sleazy behavior, no regard for human life. It is not like that in my small town."

The name of Lyndon B. Johnson immediately comes to mind.. And that old saying, "You get what you subsidize"...

19 posted on 06/24/2021 6:27:54 AM PDT by unread (Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities - Voltaire)
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To: unread
The name of Lyndon B. Johnson immediately comes to mind..<<<

I believe there is a recording where LBJ says something like......

I don't know if this is a good idea...but Ill have all those N*gg%$$ voting democrat for the next 100 yrs....

20 posted on 06/24/2021 7:28:38 AM PDT by M-cubed (The MSM is now the 4th Branch of Government.....)
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