I have to sound off on this. Guns.
Practically not a day goes by when there isn't at least one crazed person killing someone in the US. The stats are incredible. Seventeen thousand dead a year in the States. Two billion dollars in health care costs to treat almost 70,000 wounded.
It isn't just schizoid youths who are blowing people away. It's doctors and marketing professors. I'm waiting for the brief on A2 about a priest who has a disagreement with a parishioner and then "goes away for a few minutes and returns with his guns."
My mom and sister were out on a Sunday drive recently in rural Virginia and ran into some "traffic" in a small town. Guess what -- some guy had had a disagreement with his employer and he had "returned with his guns".
The fact that this does not strike us as more absurd is shocking. Why do people have weapons at home? Awaiting what? Why multiple weapons? What makes this acceptable?
Maybe it's the gun itself that causes the problem -- some sort of demon leaches out of the metal and corrupts the possessor -- maybe not.
The NRA can defend its stance until the cows come home, but nobody disputes that only a fraction of the gun owners would reach for a knife or club instead if there were a ban.
So enough. Or I will start making creepy videos and circulating them on the Net in which I call for a full handgun ban.
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7 comments:
As a classic of Russian literature wrote, ruination is not in your toilets - it is in your heads.
Estonia has a pretty extensive, though non-obvious gun culture. You can get a concealed carry permit without having to explain yourself, and it's not particularly difficult. There are some 50,000 handguns registered in Estonia.
And yet, almost nobody ever gets shot. Mob hits involve firearms, and I believe there was a man a few years ago who shot his family and then killed himself - but it was a career soldier who would have had access to guns anyway.
Although I do agree that there is no practical reason for the general population to have guns. (No serious revolution has ever had any trouble getting guns delivered.)
Agree with Flasher here. Yo do not hear much about gun crime in Switzerland where modern, military grade combat weapons, and not just weapons but basically anything to wage war, are readily available in most homes. So it must be culture, not guns
Yep. And with the pig flu threat, surely the gun sales are going go thru the roof again.
And the point is...? Always been this way, probably will be since we seem to value gun rights more than people rights. When I contemplated moving back to the States, I wondered if it would be a mistake for my kids and the gun thing...but then facing living life forever in Scandinavia vs a more intriguing, stimulating, and diverse culture, it seemed like a good choice and I think my children are grateful. There are safer countries, but there are many far more dangerous, too.
I'd rather be shot than stabbed. Just sayin'.
What a minute, I think I saw this documentary. Didn't it involve some cartoon done by the guys behind South Park?
Here in Australia we can count the number of armed rampages on one hand, and each one still shocks the hell out of us, even decades later.
I don't bring this up to rub your face in it, but to point out something: A lot of people might blame the TV shows, movies and video games people are exposed to in America... but Australians watch the exact same shows and movies, and play the exact same video games.
I mean this literally - only a small percentage of what we see on the screen is local content. Almost everything else comes directly from America or the UK.
And yet, we don't seem to do the "come back with guns" thing.
(That's not to say we aren't hideously violent - just more immediate. If you annoy an Aussie, he'll just punch you in the head or glass you with a broken bottle. Going away to get a weapon and coming back later is not something we tend to do.)
So, if the American gun culture has nothing to do with the cultural output, what is at the root of it all?
PS. Oh, and we do have a reasonably strict gun control policy, which involves being a registered member of a gun club, being restricted as to the type and caliber of gun you can own and having a secure gun safe where all fire-arms are locked away when not in transit or in use. People can (and do) get around it, but most of us don't bother.
PPS. This is completely irrelevant (not to mention irreverent), but ever since I read The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde, I've never been able to hear the phrase "right to bear arms" without wondering about the "right to arm bears".
A couple of comments about firearms from one who packs a gat on the trail, but also has a concealed carry permit for it. The Beretta is not for bear, but more an equalizer in the event that some human animals wish to harass a solitary hiker/camper. I have no intention of using it, but if showing it is not enough of a deterrent, I am prepared to shoot. Actually the trails are about the safest place to be what with trail etiquette, and not that this country is a dangerous place in spite of the news. To obtain a concealed carry permit in Virginia requires a firearms course taken at a range unfortunately affiliated with the NRA. To take the course a person is required to join the NRA. Fortunately my military training was an approved substitute for the NRA crap. Of course, there is a background check as well.
As for military weapons, they are all secured in the post/barracks armory and released only on as needed basis. Firearms training such as target ranges, cleaning, assembly/disassembly all are tightly controlled and every weapon accounted for. Even in a war zone, in secure areas, weapons are not released nilly-willy. During the spill over of the Watts riots to DC, we were on the streets with the military and rifles, but without ammunition.
In my opinion, a lot of the death by firearms can be eliminated by controlling the sale of ammunition. As it is now I can go to any outlet, Wal-Mart, sporting goods store, etc. and buy all the bullets I wish with no proof of anything, whether I own a weapon legally or illegally or not at all. If ammunition sales were regulated to only registered weapons owners with proof of registration and caliber specific, the death by gun incidents would drop dramatically. I would have no problem with such regulation, but the National Rifle Association would have a terrible time with such law. Mass murder by knife, I believe, is rather rare.
As for me I would rather be stabbed than shot. Wouldn't it be nice if wars were not fought at all, but if they were they would be with knives.
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