Let's just call it murder

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Saturday December 05, 2015 · 3:58 PM PST

2015/12/05 · 15:58

So many arguments about what happened in San Bernadino, in Colorado, in Oregon… Many of them center around what to call the shooters — were they wackos, terrorists, zealots?

I have an easy answer — they were murderers.

This bypasses the swarm of pundits, the endless speculation, the ongoing rhetoric. It gets to the core of what happened: people died, mothers weep, children will grow up without a parent, all of us are saddened and maybe a little frightened. The fabric of our safe society has a hole in it.

If a person intentionally kills another person, he or she is a murderer. All major religions have injunctions against killing another, especially an innocent person. Humanistic tradition shares these values. All but a few of us are horrified when faced with the purposeful killing of another person.

So let’s not let these murders off the hook. Let’s not glorify them with being terrorists or anti abortion protestors, or even people in need of mental health services. Let’s call them murderers. Only when we change the rhetoric around these cowardly, inhuman acts will there be a possibility of a cultural change.

We need gun culture control. Many of us remember a time when guns were not such a big deal. As an Alaskan, I lived with guns as a means of protection (from bears) and food gathering. They were a tool, not a symbol. Now urban dwellers who buy their meat at a grocery store and who have a minimal chance of encountering violence feel that they need to have guns to celebrate their potency. And, every time a shooter gets press, they see how much power having a gun and using it gives the user.

Of course we will strive to understand. Of course we know there mitigating circumstances. Of course this is a complex issue. However, let’s call it out. Weak, immoral, hateful, mean, cowardly these are the adjectives we need to use to describe these murderers.

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