Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
With the festive season well underway, you'd think that people would be in reasonable spirits and mood yet, as always, this is not the case. Whilst there are a good number of people who are less fortunate than others and, indeed, are given help around this time of year, there's also the unsavoury element of humanity that are out for themselves, and usually themselves alone. This was brought home recently with the report of a shooting incident at the local mall (local meaning about a 15 min drive away) at the end of this week. This, again, set my mind to thinking about the gun culture in general, particularly over here in the USA. I'm sure that most people reading this blog know that the right to bear arms is something written into the constituition - and so, essentially, is considered a basic right of every American citizen and, indeed, a considerable number of people over here have at least one gun in the house (usually loaded). Yet i do wonder if it's really an absolutely necessary thing?
Okay, so back when the Constitution was written, i can easily imagine it was a very necessary thing to be able to bear arms to defend your property - what with the 'free for all' style of obtaining land that there used to be back then. That, added with the fact that this was fledgling new country with plenty of native Americans and other European powers still floating around, then it seems perfectly reasonable. Yet, whilst the current politicians are happy to point out that certain things in the Constitution are rather out of date (quite rightly), they still seem to refuse to give this the proper consideration. Yet almost nearly every week, there are reports of shootings in communities or schools - in particular, the killing of 10 children at an Amish community in New England (i think it was). The other day I was reading of an incident in North Charleston where an elderly gentleman was shot in his home by a burglar - who had come across the rifle whilst he was going through the house. With some States willing to address this issue at the State goverment level, perhaps its time that the Federal government should also consider this a matter for debate. One can only hope.
posted by Chris Clarke @ 10:36 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I agree with you that Charleston is getting to be a bloody place; and I agree that the violence must end. I don't think that you can legislate guns away. Not here in South Carolina. The problem (as many conservatives will point out) is not the guns, but the people behind them.
But putting more people in jail doesn't work any more than taking the guns away. Crime is just the best opportunity out there for some folks. By putting them in jail, you narrow their opportunities still further, so that when they come out, they're more likely to go back to crime as a means of making a living.
Drugs are often a cause of violence with these folks, but more to the point, DRUG LAWS are a cause of violence, since they create scarcity and drive prices up to the point where it becomes a worthwhile gamble to deal them illegally.
Religion doesn't work. Two thousand years of Christianity has shown it to be a miserable failure at stopping violence. The 20th century was home to some of the most horrific, barbaric cruelty ever and much of it occurred in supposedly 'Christian' nations (like Germany).
It seems to me though, that all that the milk truck driver who killed the Amish girls (it was Lancaster County, PA by the way) was doing was mirroring what, in a larger sense, our society is doing in Iraq right now. George Bush seems to take great delight in lobbing his Tomahawk missiles (purchased by the US taxpayer at a million bucks a pop) at this country and that. And why not? Violence is a good career move for the rich, too.
Mister milk-truck driver didn't have any missiles (that's illegal). All that he had was a hunting rifle and a tube of K-Y gel. Just one less government missile could have bought him some free, easily accessed therapy and perhaps an Rx for prozac? Maybe then maybe he wouldn't have snapped like he did.
A very well written argument. Although whilst i agree that often the problem with guns is the people behind them, if the guns weren't around to begin with (or at least were considerably restricted), it might make some difference. Having said that, what's to stop the guns from going on the blackmarket then??
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