From Truth Out: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/14539-when-wars-come-home
By Charles Derber and Yale Magrass
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
In the flood of commentary about the Newtown massacre and broader US gun violence, liberals tend to blame failures of gun control while conservatives blame the mentally ill and Hollywood. But they are both missing one important and overlooked explanation: the domestic consequences of a militarized superpower engaged in chronic wars around the world.
The US spends more money on the military than the next ten countries together. It also has the highest level of domestic gun violence in the developed world. Highly militarized societies cannot compartmentalize foreign from domestic violence. They cannot prevent wars – and guns – from coming home.
Christopher Dorner certainly brought the war home. On February 3, 2013, he began a killing rampage, shooting his lawyer’s daughter and her fiancé, firing at three police officers, killing one and issuing a manifesto threatening to kill at least 12 more. Dorner is a former Navy lieutenant, a specialist in undersea warfare, a rifle marksman and a pistol expert who lost his job in the Los Angeles police department. The LAPD announced that the weapons training Dorner received in the Navy makes him a very serious threat.
Europe provides a clear contrast to the United States. Since World War II, as the United States became the sole superpower, Europe largely renounced militarism and war. Demilitarization is one of the reasons why many European countries, such as Sweden, have high levels of gun ownership for hunting and sports, but have one-tenth the US level of gun violence. Demilitarization weakens the cultural foundation of violence in civil society – If violence is not acceptable abroad, it can hardly be seen as honorable at home.
Continue reading at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/14539-when-wars-come-home
