Contributor: Every shooting reflects our culture of violence, which the president cheers
On May 21, while leaving the capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were deadly shot and the story was reported in the familiar mode of Middle East politics, as they were employees of the Israeli Embassy and were associated with the suspicious, pro -pilist politics.
The questions asked by reporters and experts: “Was this anti -Semitic?” “Is this a direct consequence of Israel’s hungry for the Palestinians in Gaza?” “Was this another action other than pro -Palestinian terrorism?” “Is this ‘direct result of globalization’ in the intifada?” Although these are valid questions, they miss a central part of the story.
Only in the eighth paragraph New York Times Report According to the authorities, the night before the shooting, the suspect, “Chicago for a business conference to the Washington area when he flew with a luggage control of a gun” and the authorities “the weapon used in the murders were legally purchased,” he said. ( Los Angeles Times article However, he does not mention these facts.) However, this tragic attraction is not unique.
In November 2023, a Burlington, et al., Adam was arrested and accused of shooting Three Palestinian University Student Without a word to them. (Claimed that he was not guilty.)
In October 2018, an armed man entered the life tree synagogue in Pittsburgh and He pulled 11 Jews in Dua and killed.
Three Muslim students in 2015 He was shot and killed by his neighbors Chapel Hill at NC
This short and very missing list is literally hundreds of thousands of people Those who have been killed by weapons in the US in the last decade, Buffalo, Racist mass shooting in NY and Charleston, SC, are not in the Church of the Nun Emanuel Ame; mass shooting Pulse Night Club Orlando, Fla.; or The most deadly mass extraction in the USA– In 2017 at a music festival in Las Vegas. This frightening list is also at the same time thousands of people shot and killed by law enforcement officers.
The elephant in the room – was accepted as the basis that it is not largely promised – it is a deeply rooted culture of violence in the United States. Weapon ownership, police violence and abuse and mass shots are symptoms of this culture. However, the Militarist Approach to the International Conflict (from Vietnam to Ukraine) and the disdain for non -violent solutions are based on this culture. manosphere and cruelty Predatory capitalism. Now we have a presidential administration that embodies this culture.
The internal security secretary Kristi NOEM uses the morality of this persecution and violence. photographed in front of a cage full of people In a Salvador prison known for the unjust treatment of the prisoners Writing comfortably about killing your dog. Noem is a key actor in the theater of the cruelty, but not a single person, and the unique star is of course president Trump.
Trump’s policy agenda is revenge. He has fun in the theatricality of the violence of the world of martial arts and signs the executive orders aimed at destroying individuals, legal firms and universities, and the economy of the “big beautiful” budget carries money to those who need wasted.
President now He wants a military parade ceremony Tanks, helicopters and soldiers on the birthday. Although he escaped from Trump draft and Reportedly The war absorbors and the losers who were killed in the American soldiers love the strong aesthetics of an army in his age and calling. “We train our sons for killing machines. “
Although some want to draw a suspicious line to the murders of Lischinsky and Milgrim, one of the pro -Palestinian campus demonstrations, the direct line to be drawn: a culture of violence that seems to be ignored, and inevitably lead to more death.
The only way to get out of this cycle of violence is to handle the elephant in the room.
Aryeh Cohen is a rabbi and professor at the American University of Jewish in Los Angeles. @irmiklat.bsky.social
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Ideas expressed in the piece
- The article argues that the US armed violence stems from a normalized culture of violence strengthened by the political leadership celebrating militarist foreign policies, loose arms laws and savagery.[2]. This culture manifests itself with suicides, including 46,728 weapons deaths (79% of all murders) and 55% of fiery weapons.[1].
- Systemic weapon accessibility is emphasized as a critical factor, 29.4 gun death per 100,000 per person in Mississippi – the highest ratio – the highest rate of Massachusetts is sharply opposite by 3.7 rates and shows how variable state arms laws affect the results[2][3].
- Political guilt is emphasized with examples such as the discourse of migrants of the secretary Kristi Noem, such as public demonstrations and president Trump’s “killing machine” discourse.[2]. The sources of the administration’s policies are claimed to direct them from social programs to militarist projects.
Different opinions on the subject
- The second amendment advocates argue that 74% of the Republicans prioritize protecting arms ownership rights, to see firearms as necessary for defense and a constitutional protection against their excessive access.[2]. States with unauthorized transport laws such as Mississippi and Alabama see it as protecting individual freedoms despite their higher violence rates.[3].
- Focusing on cultural factors, critics say that 55% of weapons deaths that are distant from addressing mental health crises and healing law enforcement officers suggest separate public health priorities beyond legal reforms.[1][2].
- Some policy makers defend targeted interventions such as advanced background controls and red flag laws instead of broad cultural criticisms and point to Massachusetts’s low armed violence rate as proof that regulatory measures can be successful without violating rights[2][3].
