Via SayUncle I come to a blog article from Katie Allison Granju. She thinks about how the world was just 25 years ago, and then how it is today. She asks:

So here is the question: what is different between my childhood, only 25 years ago, and the ones my kids have today that makes us so much more afraid of guns in particular? I don’t know the answer to this question, but something HAS changed.

I posted the following comment to her blog, since she asked for her reader’s thoughts:

So what’s different? Information and our access and exposure to it. Consider yourself and how you describe yourself on this blog: “A working mom embraces life with four busy kids and a continually buzzing Blackberry.” Did we have Blackberry’s 25 years ago? Mobile phones? Did we have an Internet? Cable TV was just starting up… heck, VCR’s were just becoming popular and common-place in the hom

Has the world really changed that much? I don’t think so. What’s really changed is that we’re able to see more, hear more, learn more, and be exposed to so much more. We have access and exposure to events from around the world as they are happening (e.g. the Iran protests and Twitter). Consider what the power of that Blackberry puts in the palm of your hand, wherever you are, whenever you are. Did you have such power and access to information 25 years ago? So any time someone halfway around the world sneezes, we hear about it. 24/7 “news” networks that need to fill broadcast time with something (remember when news was only a single half-hour show in the evenings?), and they’re going to fill it with what gets ratings. Sadly, stories of fuzzy kittens don’t get ratings, but stories of death and tragedy do. But again, this is nothing different… humanity has pretty much always been this way (those ancient Romans sure loved to watch violent “competition” in their Colosseum).

Fear sells. All living things have a will to survive, and what helps drive that is fear… being aware of what’s out there that’s dangerous and could affect our survival. So we tune in to learn about dangerous things… people being killed and what causes them to be killed. For whatever reason, guns are disproportionally targeted (guns apparently kill people, but when it’s a drunk driver that kills someone we don’t blame the SUV)… probably because guns have a somewhat straightforward and limited application, and there’s great power in that application. So, it scares some people.

But consider… even today there are thousands upon thousands of good, responsible young people out there. Why don’t we hear about them? Because good stuff doesn’t sell. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

I’ll continue the questioning. You would never have unlocked guns in your house. Why not? What exactly are you afraid of? The gun itself won’t spring to life and hurt you. If you’re worried about someone accessing the gun, do you not trust your own children? Are you not raising them to be responsible? Are you unwilling to teach them (or let them learn) how to be safe with guns? The NRA has many programs to help people learn how to be safe with guns, from the Eddie Eagle program on up to youth shooting sports. Kathy Jackson’s Cornered Cat has a lot of good stuff too.

If you wouldn’t be comfortable with your children being at a friend’s house with a gun on the wall… why are you allowing your child to be around that person in the first place? Either you trust this other child and their family, or you don’t. If you kinda trust them somewhat maybe… regardless of guns, why are you allowing your children to be with anyone that has less than 100% of your trust in the first place? Then if they have 100% of your trust, what are you concerned about?

My point is, much of this is in your head, and you seem to understand that and are trying to come to terms with it. Our world isn’t as horrible a place as the news media makes it out to be. If you don’t believe me, try shutting off the Blackberry and ignoring the media for about 6 months… you’ll be amazed at how beautiful the world becomes. And in reality, it’s always been that beautiful. 🙂