Accomplished Nothing

So it's been a pretty busy period over the last month in America for shooting people. In fact, it's been so busy, if I asked, 'did you hear about that terrible shooting,' you'd likely respond, 'which one?'
Things haven't been much better overseas. This year has been a banner year for crazed gunmen.
Certainly there are arguments to be made over foreign policy, gun rights, police brutality, racism and so on, but I'm not going to make a complicated argument for one thing or another. These tough issues have to be discussed sanely and talked out to a sensible solution over a process of time. That's not my point here. My thought is much simpler and aimed, ironically enough, at the gunmen and those like them who would use their attacks to drive across a point. The point is this: You've accomplished nothing.
But, whatever do you mean, surely you're asking. I mean your point, your ideal, the thought that poisons your brain as you clean an assault rifle in the dull yellow light of a dusty basement, that 'I'll show them, I'll show them all,' time you spend in solitude contemplating the fact that gunning down some people, sharing the pain you carry around in your daily life will somehow 'show them,' will exact some measure of revenge or get across the point that Westerners or cops or blacks or whites or Shiites or whoever the hell else it is that has evidently caused your problems – that point...it failed. You accomplished nothing.
The airport in Turkey wasn't even closed the entire day when shootings took place there. While saddened, the Dallas police department will soon replace their fallen officers and move on with the business of patrolling their city and life will carry on as it always does.
Sure, there are plenty of families now who mourn the loss of their loved ones. We, as a civilized society, share that loss because we all know the pain of mourning. But it's Sunday morning today and black people are in church everywhere, even in North Charleston. That's because life will continue. Those left behind after brutal attacks like these will ultimately not be intimidated from going to church or temple or mosque or falling to their knees at the sight of the flying spaghetti monster or doing whatever else it is we do because the things we do, protesting, going to the movies, going to school or work, walking in a park or driving in our cars, that is what life is, the collection of experiences. And shooting people or bombing them isn't going to change that. Ever.
Sure, you're angry about something. And that's fair. It's OK to get ticked off. But killing people isn't going to fix anything. It makes you neither a messenger nor a martyr. It just makes you a murderer. That's it. The rest of the point falls away. You've accomplished nothing nor will you ever accomplish anything. Hitler tried to wipe civilized Europe off the map in the 1940s and yet here we are, less than a week removed from Germany and France gathering to compete in a soccer match. No bullets, no bombs, no fists and no animosity. If that level of destruction and death cannot prevent Germans and the French from loving each other and sharing something they both care about deeply, what impact do you think shooting some folks will have on whatever point it is you're trying to drive home. And when did that ever happen anyway? That killer? He raised some good points. Nobody says that. Never. Not ever.
'This is unfair and it needs to be changed,' is a point that falls on deaf ears as soon as a gunshot breaks the silent serenity of everyday life.
So go ahead, shoot some people if that's what you're inclined to do. But it's not going to stop us. Any of us. We'll mourn your senseless decision and leave flowers for the people you've stolen away from us. But it'll end there. You will have accomplished nothing and whatever point you were trying to make will dissipate faster than the smoke billowing from the barrel of a gun.