Most political proposals to stop gun violence currently bandied about involve initiating violence against peaceful people. After all, it will require force and people with guns threatening violence to ensure other people don’t have whatever guns or firearm accessories the political class ultimately decides should be forbidden – to stop violence.

But supporters of such measures generally hide their own thirst for violence. In fact, most of them probably don’t even recognize they have it because they will never have to personally commit a violent act. They have institutionalized their violence in the Church of the State. As a result, they can keep their hands clean and pontificate from imagined moral high ground.

But every once in a while, the mask comes off and we see the naked violence.

For instance, somebody threw up a sign on a billboard along I-64 in Louisville, Ky., that read “Kill the NRA.”

There have also been a number of social media posts wishing for violence against gun owners. For example, Tim Wise tweeted this jewel (later deleted).

As an “anti-racism” activist, I’m certain Wise fancies himself a moral fellow. And yet…

These are the same people accusing gun control opponents of “not caring about children.” Tim didn’t seem very concerned about bubba’s kids.

Some people would argue that Wise was just blowing off steam, or using hyperbole. He would never actually commit such a violent act. But ripping guns from people’s hands is exactly what every gun ban supporter wants to do. They just lack the will or ability to initiate the violence themselves. Instead, they rely on the priests of the Chruch of the State to pronounce judgments and sanctified government soldiers to enforce them.

You see, for all of their sanctimonious moralizing, people like Wise are dedicated disciples of this church of institutionalized violence – i.e. the state. Aggressive force is their god. Laws and edicts make up their liturgy. Ordained soldiers impose their catechism with brutal efficiency.

Carey Wedler at Anti Media wrote an interesting piece pointing out a connection between many mass shooters in America and the military. Could this tacit acceptance of institutionalized violence in the form of government action create an environment ripe for individuals to lash out violently?

None of this is to claim that simply being a member of or supporting the military creates mass shooters (although admittedly, many members of the military are mass shooters, they just kill innocent foreigners abroad rather than those in the U.S.).

However, it is to say that the military is an inherently violent institution, and it should come as no surprise that individuals drawn to violent institutions believe using violence is acceptable.

As journalist Justin King wrote in a piece highlighting the experience of an average American teenage boy and how much violence pervades the fabric of our culture:

‘In homeroom, they watch the news. A bunch of brown kids in some far away land have been ripped in half by warheads from a drone. Oops. Just collateral damage. Life is cheap. He’ll watch the live footage of the dead kids as detached as any trained killer. He knows we’re ready to go to war in Syria and knows we should kill them, but neither he nor his parents could tell you why.’

Despite outrage from many Americans over the consistent stream of mass shootings, a tiny fraction of the population makes so much as a peep about the relentless destruction of innocent life abroad — destruction they pay for and that seeps back into American society. This is no more evident than in the repeated tendency of mass shooters to revere or participate in the military machine.

Wedler might be on to something. I will take it a step further.

The entire government is an inherently violent institution. The military and various law enforcement agencies serve as enforcement arms. They commit violent acts on the orders of politicians and bureaucrats who initiate these acts on behalf of the voters. Citizens who embrace this system and rely on it to impose their conception of the “common good” on society are every bit as violent in their hearts as the guy with his finger on the trigger. And as Wedler astutely points out, it should come as no surprise that individuals drawn to violent institutions believe using violence is acceptable.

The fact you hired a hitman to kill somebody doesn’t absolve you from murder.

The gun-banners and authoritarians of every stripe should at least own their dedication to the church of institutionalized violence.

Bone Church photo by David Staedtler via Flickr.