First off I don’t own a gun nor do I plan on purchasing one anytime soon. After yesterday’s horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech the gun control nuts in America and around the world are starting to make a lot of noise. The basic argument is that our lax gun control laws and crazy 2nd amendment enabled this tragedy to occur.
There is the old bumper sticker that says “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.†This statement is something that I basically agree with. A gun is nothing more than a tool like a wrench, hammer or screwdriver. It is an inanimate object that is not capable of thought or performing actions on its own. A person with an idea is what dictates what a tool does. A wrench, hammer or screwdriver can and have been used to kill people but they are still available for sale at thousands of hardware stores around the country. I don’t think our civil liberties should suffer based on the way one bad apple decided to use a tool.
There are always going to be humans with perceived reasons that justify their belief that they need to do something horrible to other human beings. It could be a chemical inbalance in their brain, religious beliefs or a horrible childhood that cause these thoughts. We can invent bulletproof vests to prevent a bullet from injuring a human. But we can’t invent a “humanproof†vest that will prevent one bad apple hell bent on killing another person from completing their task one way or another. Think of the most notorious serial killers of all time. Very few used a gun as their weapon of choice.
We as humans are extremely clever. We have invented the automobile, airplanes and computers all within the last hundred years. You could ban guns completely (I won’t even start on the black market this would create) but I don’t think it would prevent these kind of tragedies in the long run. It might make things a little tougher for these bad apples but once someone decides they need to kill a large amount of other human beings they will figure out a way do it regardless of the tools available to them.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
A wrench, hammer or screwdriver never killed 30 people in a minute.
True…and you can buy them without a background check or a waiting period.
I agree with Mr. Martin. Lets not get technical on screwdriver mass slayings. There are hundreds of creative ways to kill more than one person at a time (bombs, poison, gasoline) and some of these are easier to purchase than a wrench.
I don’t know about easier to purchase than a wrench. But anyway, government is designed to limit our civil liberties to a point we can handle without overly harming others. Obviously, we can’t handle guns. At least a wrench serves some purpose.
Our government was founded to prevent government imposed limitations on numerous civil liberties.
It is a gross generalization to say that WE cannot handle guns. In 1994, which is the latest data I could find, 44 million americans owned 192 million guns. I am aware that gun violence exists, but it is hardly statistically significant. If 440,000 people injured someone with a gun in 1994, that would be 1% of all gun owners. Not really a WE, with respect to gun owners, and not even close to a WE with respect to the nearly 270 million Americans alive at that time. I would bet my first born that 440,000 people did not hurt somebody buy using a gun that year.
If you want to talk about something WE cannot handle, it is our alcohol. And by WE, I don’t mean me, Lexington, or Mitchy
Well, you are completely wrong about the first part, but I won’t get into that. On the second part, 1%, or .5% or even .01% of gun owners harming others is still way too much. There is absolutely no good reason why someone should be able to own a semi-automatic weapon. Please list a few so I can systematically tell you why you are wrong. On the third part, I drink with Mitchy all the time and I know for a fact he cannot handle his alcohol like a real man.