Musing on the aftermath of VT tragedy
I wasn't sure I was going to post on this. I've been doing a lot of reading of the posts on my flist, and doing a lot of thinking, and finally decided that I was going to post after all.
I am a gun owner. My guns are not at my house: they are at my father's house, with gunlocks on my rifle, in the locked gun cabinet, with the ammunition stored separately, also under lock. I own, currently, a .22 rifle that was given to me for Christmas when I was 14 by my father, and a set of antique dueling pistols from the Civil War. Women's dueling pistols, actually (yup, been in the family for generations. Explains a lot, doesn't it?).
In the aftermath of a tragedy like this, there will once again be calls from both sides of the gun debate. Those supporting gun laws will be calling for a total ban on guns, which of course the NRA will never allow. Those against gun laws will be screaming 2nd Amendment rights. And in the screams and emotions, there will be absolutely no reasonable, rational discourse, so nothing will get done. Until the next tragedy, the next school shooting, the next sniper incident, at which point the cycle will begin again.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
So what is the solution? Is it to truly get rid of all guns, to legislate them out of existance? Is it education? What is the solution?
Honestly, I don't know.
Personally, I don't think simple legislation will work. You can make tighter and tighter gun laws all you want: since criminals don't worry about other laws, then why should that stop them? Will it stop the accidents? Maybe. Will it stop the school shootings? I doubt it - most of them were committed with illegal guns, if I remember correctly.
Is this to say I'm anti-gun-legislation, that I'm one of those "NRA freaks"? No, I'm not. I support laws stating that guns and ammunition should be locked up and sold separately. I don't think anyone needs an M-16 or an AK-47 to go hunting. I support laws stating that there should be waiting periods and that we shouldn't sell to children.
However, I also support laws stating that everyone should know gun safety. How many accidents a year happen because kids are fooling around with Dad's or Mom's gun and it "just went off?" Let me tell you, my father made DAMN sure us kids ALL knew what a gun was. Number 1, it wasn't a toy. Number 2, if you point it at someone, you damn well better know what the consequences are. Number 3, if you aren't prepared to kill someone, don't point the damn gun at them.
Yes, guns are glamorized by American society. You only have to look at the movies, the music, the books to see that. So's organized crime (The Sopranos, anyone? Or Goodfellas?), drugs (Blow?), and any number of other things that really aren't good for our society in general.
So what's the answer? I don't know. Maybe it's time for a world-wide cleansing and starting over. (Damn, that sounds cynical, but it's quarter past 1 in the morning).
Maybe it's time humanity in general started taking responsibility for our own damn actions and started acting like damn adults.
I am a gun owner. My guns are not at my house: they are at my father's house, with gunlocks on my rifle, in the locked gun cabinet, with the ammunition stored separately, also under lock. I own, currently, a .22 rifle that was given to me for Christmas when I was 14 by my father, and a set of antique dueling pistols from the Civil War. Women's dueling pistols, actually (yup, been in the family for generations. Explains a lot, doesn't it?).
In the aftermath of a tragedy like this, there will once again be calls from both sides of the gun debate. Those supporting gun laws will be calling for a total ban on guns, which of course the NRA will never allow. Those against gun laws will be screaming 2nd Amendment rights. And in the screams and emotions, there will be absolutely no reasonable, rational discourse, so nothing will get done. Until the next tragedy, the next school shooting, the next sniper incident, at which point the cycle will begin again.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
So what is the solution? Is it to truly get rid of all guns, to legislate them out of existance? Is it education? What is the solution?
Honestly, I don't know.
Personally, I don't think simple legislation will work. You can make tighter and tighter gun laws all you want: since criminals don't worry about other laws, then why should that stop them? Will it stop the accidents? Maybe. Will it stop the school shootings? I doubt it - most of them were committed with illegal guns, if I remember correctly.
Is this to say I'm anti-gun-legislation, that I'm one of those "NRA freaks"? No, I'm not. I support laws stating that guns and ammunition should be locked up and sold separately. I don't think anyone needs an M-16 or an AK-47 to go hunting. I support laws stating that there should be waiting periods and that we shouldn't sell to children.
However, I also support laws stating that everyone should know gun safety. How many accidents a year happen because kids are fooling around with Dad's or Mom's gun and it "just went off?" Let me tell you, my father made DAMN sure us kids ALL knew what a gun was. Number 1, it wasn't a toy. Number 2, if you point it at someone, you damn well better know what the consequences are. Number 3, if you aren't prepared to kill someone, don't point the damn gun at them.
Yes, guns are glamorized by American society. You only have to look at the movies, the music, the books to see that. So's organized crime (The Sopranos, anyone? Or Goodfellas?), drugs (Blow?), and any number of other things that really aren't good for our society in general.
So what's the answer? I don't know. Maybe it's time for a world-wide cleansing and starting over. (Damn, that sounds cynical, but it's quarter past 1 in the morning).
Maybe it's time humanity in general started taking responsibility for our own damn actions and started acting like damn adults.
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I'm not really sure what the answer is.
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There are fanatics on both sides of the issue and I think that keeps the real heart of the matter from being discussed. It all boils down to common sense and responsibility, I think.
There will always be crazy people, though, and sadly, crazy people will kill innocent people, no matter what weapon they use. They always seem to find a way. We just need to find a way to recognize them ahead of time, I guess, and stop them.
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Yeah, and I'm at a loss to suggest how. But yes, I definitely agree, re: fanatics. And that's a whole 'nother problem in and of itself.
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What do you do after you've banned them, you've legislated them to death, and people are still killing people with them?
And no, I really don't have an answer to it. I wish to hell someone did, though.
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Sorry for such a lame answer, but there we are...
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It's just not enough. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer as to what is.
Other than humanity growing up.
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The problem isn't guns. The problem is the asshats who use guns in ways they shouldn't use them. Therefore, the only way to solve the problem is to make ppl not want to use their guns for heinous purposes. However, it's pretty much impossible to get large numbers of humans to act like you want them to act, or feel what you want them to feel, or whatever. So, the problem will continue into the foreseeable future.
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Exactly.
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(Anonymous) 2007-04-17 10:20 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
You know how the human race is: give us a foot, and we'll take the whole damn field.
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It's the people and parents for the most part. Not always but for the most part. To quote and old and probably over used clishe' Gun's don't kill people.
People kill people.
"Maybe it's time humanity in general started taking responsibility for our own damn actions and started acting like damn adults."
Yup I do agree.
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And yes, we need more education. Desperately.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm not really a pacifist. I just wouldn't keep a gun in the house for the same reason I wouldn't keep a man eating crocodile. Sure, he might eat any burglars that come into the house, but it's a hell of a lot more likely that I'm the one who's going to get bitten.
Education or not, with or without safety procedures, guns exist for one specific purpose; to kill stuff. I just don't want that in my house. Or my suburb. Or my city. Or my country.
Yes, people kill people. Guns just make it a helluva lot easier. I've seen someone I love pushed so far that if they'd had a gun handy someone would have died. This was a reasonable, sane person who normally would never hurt a fly (literally). Everyone, EVERYONE, has that breaking point, no matter how safe they think they are. How well educated. How sensible and "not one of those crazies and gun nuts." I've also been in a position where if the person in front of me had had a gun instead of a house brick I'd be dead right now. This was not the sort of person with the sort of connections or street smarts to procure a gun illegally. This was a private citizen on a really bad day and too much weed.
I live in a society where you can't buy hand guns. The laws that other countries are so riled up about already exist here. And despite all the protestations I hear in those other countries, there's not one single person in this country who's worse off for them, and a whole lot of people who are better off. Guns are simply not a part of our lives here.
People are resistant to having their freedoms curtailed (at least, when they realise it's happening :P ), but guns are not a right of being human. They're a ridiculous exemplification of our flawed nature. They have no place in a civilized society, and no place in any future that I would create.
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Yes, it's an extreme example. But my college didn't allow things like butter knives in the dorm room, because they could be used as deadly weapons. BUTTER KNIVES.
And it's ridiculously easy to get an illegal gun, anywhere. I could go out and get one in the next town over, and I'm in rural New Hampshire.
So we'll agree to respectfully disagree, okay? :)