I'm sure you're probably reading this and rolling your eyes so hard that your retinas detach, the first thought entering your head being, "Oh man, another rant on gun control." I've written previously about the necessity of firearm and mental health reform, but now I'd like to discuss a part of the conversation that's been troubling me greatly.
As the debate intensifies and the body count continues to rise (3,627 deaths involving firearms and an active shooter situation at the YouTube headquarters at the time of this writing), one thing I am seeing a lot of across social media is the mocking of shooting survivors like Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg as they attempt to light a fire under the asses of our governing body.
Some of the quotes I see circulating my Facebook timeline include: "I refuse to discuss gun control with immature brats who eat Tide pods" and "They weren't spanked enough growing up." These are children who witnessed their friends die violently in a hail of bullets at the hand of a man wielding a weapon designed for the sole purpose of killing. If your firearm fetish and desire to belittle children takes precedence over concern for the safety of these children, perhaps it's time to reevaluate your way of thinking.
What I find particularly nonsensical is that most of this mocking talk comes by and large from the same people who tout the ideology that we need to be kinder to everyone around us and that we can prevent further tragedies by simply being more conscientious of the sad and strange kids.
This is something everyone should do every day, not solely when disaster tells us to and not as a self-righteous means of positioning yourself as some sort of benevolent sage. One thing I learned about in one of my first sociology courses was the logical fallacy of the hasty generalization, which refers to incorrect categorizing and stereotyping of people based on personal assumption as opposed to evidence. By sociological definition, engaging this sort of contradictory behavior is logically fallacious (as in it doesn't agree with sound logic).
You are insensitive, malicious, hypocritical and spineless if you feel genuinely compelled to ridicule and generalize children rather than listen to their cries for help and engage in serious, constructive conversation.
