Angry Guy Violence at Christmastime

Just a quick observation or three about a tragedy that happened in Pinellas County on Christmas, where two brothers shot at each other arguing over which had the bigger Christmas and in the process killed their older sister (via Jack Prator at the Tampa Bay Times).

• This shooting happened because two people - young men with anger and envy driving them - had incredibly easy access to firearms, and had prodded each other to levels of rage that guaranteed someone was going to end up dead.
• None of this would have happened if either the family didn't make it so easy to access weapons, or if the young men involved had better opportunities to learn ways to avoid that anger, to avoid the rage that always leads to tragedy of some kind.
• You could wonder about the stress, anxiety, and emotional mix-ups that come about whenever Christmas rolls around, but I get the sense the filial feuding had been brewing for some time, and that anything else - a birthday, a family celebration, someone having a bad day - would have triggered the same response.

And you want to know the horrifying observation about this? There were multiple shootings across the United States on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Much like there have been multiple shootings across the United States throughout all of 2023. We are now averaging two mass shootings per day, and nothing being done to reduce the easy access of guns to angry guys across nation.

Not the greatest way to celebrate what's supposed to be a day of peace and goodwill.

Gods help us.