A Different Take on America’s Mass Violence Problem

What is it that triggers evil in the heart of man?

A couple days after the mass shooting at Uvalde I took a step away from the gun debate. I couldn’t read about it. I couldn’t think about it. I couldn’t write about it. It was just too much.

The photos of the kids dying and the politicians posturing had made me ill. I retreated into a no-gun-talk bubble and was much happier.

Three weeks later, an article jabbed below my defenses, and I took the bait. Inside was a link to a YouTube video of parents wailing while being physically restrained by police. At that moment, their children were either soon to be shot, were bleeding out, or were already mangled beyond recognition.

This was Uvalde.

Texas police, deputies of the Lone Star state, were stopping parents from trying to save their children.

My heart was pounding (and it still does every time I re-read this section). We all have our personal triggers, and this is one of mine. My brother was shot in the neck by a fifteen-year-old with a 40-caliber pistol.

For two years after that day, I practiced. In every drill in my martial arts school I saw my brother next to me with the gunman in front of us both.

A grab to the wrist paired with a thrust to the nose. Two hands on the wrist, a twist, and a blow…