Guns

This week . . . the school shooting in Florida understandably opened the floodgates of polarization around the issue of guns. Everyone, I am sure, mourns the tragic, senseless loss of innocent life. And there are probably thoughtful suggestions on how we might take steps to decrease the chances of this kind of horror being repeated. But polarization makes defending your side and accusing the other more important than finding solutions. Anti-gun people are concerned about safety. Pro-gun people are concerned about rights. It is easy to caricature and dismiss them. But doing so widens the gap of dysfunction and solution. Which, this week especially, is a grim reminder of the deeply serious cost of polarization. When reading these examples, check the above list and ask yourself: regardless of whether you agree or disagree, is this really advancing an intelligent resolution through the persuasive, rational arguments of advocacy…or simply fueling the fire of conflict through the divisive, emotional manipulations of polarization?

Here are a few of the week’s many polarizing headlines about this issue, from the left and right: