SITYS

"Guns don't kill people; people kill people."

Or so the clichéd and oft-quoted axiom goes.

Love it or hate it, there's a lot of truth in the saying.

Last week's knife attack at a Pittsburgh area high school that injured about 20 people is yet another clear reminder that weapons aren't responsible for human destruction, but rather the humans using them.

I hate to say this to those who have been stuck in the gun-ban gear, but, see, I told you so.

I've said multiple times before that if we ban guns, then those who are bent on destruction will simply find and use other objects to carry out their violent intentions.

This is the second major knife attack in as many years. The last one was at a Texas college in 2012.

Will our benevolent leaders and government authorities ever be convinced that we cannot legislate our way to solutions to an intrinsic, pervasive cultural problem?

Banning firearms certainly didn't prevent the knife attacks from being carried out. And, banning knives now won't prevent another student from assembling a pipe bomb and stashing it in his locker until he is ready to detonate it in between classes when the hallways are crowded.

We cannot merely treat the symptoms and hope to cure the disease. But that is exactly what civil leadership is doing when it proposes legislation to limit or restrict weapons. If we ban this weapon, then that one, and then another one, then all we are doing, in effect, is treating the symptoms of a much deeper disease. The real problem is never addressed; only its effects.

If we are ever to get a handle on the why's and how's of solving America's violence problem, then we must summon the courage to probe deeper than the surface. Far below in the depths a cancerous tumor grows. We cannot see it. We can only see its effects on the surface of the body.

It is much easier to treat the symptoms, and feel better about ourselves that we were able to do something, than it is to dig underneath only to find things that we don't want to see.

But it is imperative that this be done if we are going to meet the problem head on, and have any hope of getting a handle on it.

This means having to reflect on society and our culture as a whole, to see the bigger picture hidden under layers of bandages that we've placed over the wound that is now infected.

We thought we could just put a Band-Aid over the wound to cover it up, so that we wouldn't have to look at its ugliness. And when that bandage became soaked with blood, we just replaced it with another. And another. And another. Until the wound became infected and now the problem is more wide-spread and life-threatening than it was at the beginning.

America's self-serving and humanistic culture has much to do with the deterioration of morals and values that place a premium on life. People today are not much better than wandering zombies; hollow bodies without any internal substance. Life to them has been all about the acquisition of materialism, stroking the ego, instant gratification, and the pursuit of power, position and money.

Many people today lack a moral compass. Their spirits are all but dead, and the only thing that separates their actions from those of animals is that humans know when they are doing wrong.

But when the messages we receive from popular media is that nothing really matters, then who cares? What does it matter? We are born, we live, we die and feed the worms.

Until or unless Americans summon the courage to attack the viruses of apathy and spiritual agnosticism, we will never find the deeper answers to the problems that are seemingly out of our limited line of sight.

There will be other mass violence attacks: Be them with guns, knives, bombs, vehicles, or vials of deadly germs. We cannot afford to focus on the symptoms any longer. To rid our body of the cancer within, we must attack it straight up and head on. We must be prepared for how uncomfortable and difficult cancer treatment can be. But to do nothing to the tumor only encourages it to grow.

Our nation cannot bear the consequences of doing nothing for much longer. If we are not careful, we risk imploding and collapsing from within.

There is no greater enemy to the self than the self. No weapons necessary save for the destructive thoughts of pride, ego and apathy.