Saturday, December 15, 2012

If the Shooting of Kids doesn't Cause Change, Nothing Will

This time it's much different. We've had mass shootings many times over the past few years and all of them were tragic. But this time most of the victims were innocent little kids - and a lot of them. This time something has to be done, and everybody knows what that something is.

There are those who say we have a culture of violence in this country and that is what contributes to these tragedies. I can't argue against that hypothesis because violence in video games, on TV, and certainly in rap music is ubiquitous. Who knows how much desensitizing the culture of violence has produced. But regardless of how much the culture of violence contributes, it couldn't contribute to any shootings if nobody had access to guns.

Some say it is because we have expelled God from our schools and if we only could bring prayer back into the classroom, the violence would surely stop. This hypothesis is irrational, naive and, frankly, incredibly stupid. For one thing, God has never been expelled, nor has prayer. Kids can pray all they want in school. So can teachers and administrators. The only thing they can't do is to organize a formal prayer in school and on school time. Secondly, I challenge anyone to provide me with any empirical evidence that prayer solves anything at all, other than perhaps making the believer feel better about himself or herself. It's a way to convince yourself that you're doing something without actually doing anything. Prayer is simply lazy. And if God could have prevented such tragedies but did not only because somebody didn't pray enough or pray from the right spot then what kind of evil god is he? No matter how much or little anyone prays in school, the only thing that would have prevented the shooting is if the perpetrator had no access to guns.

Some people say we need to stop stigmatizing the mentally ill so that they will find it easier to seek professional help. Maybe there are some people who are in denial about needing help, but is this what we're going to blame gun violence on? No matter how deluded or mentally challenged a person is, he is harmless to others if he doesn't have access to guns.

What we need to do is stop beating around the bush and place the blame squarely where it belongs. We have a gun culture and it is far too easy for almost anyone to get guns. Nobody needs a gun except the hunter who actually hunts to supply food for the table. If that is a lifestyle choice then maybe these people do need a shotgun or hunting rifle. But that's it. There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to own a handgun or any kind of automatic or semiautomatic weapon.

In my opinion, the Supreme Court misinterpreted the Second Amendment when it decided that states could not ban the purchase of guns. The phrase is clearly present for all to see: "...a well-regulated militia...." We no longer depend on a well-regulated militia to defend this country, and without that dependency, there is no necessity to own a gun. And if that's how SCOTUS is going to interpret it then what we really need to do is completely repeal the Second Amendment. We've repealed amendments before (the nineteenth, for example), so it is not without historical precedent. It needs to happen quickly and decisively.

I'm not naive enough to actually believe a repeal of the Second Amendment is at all likely. But it is what it will take, or something very close, to prevent mass shootings in the future.

Maybe we do have a culture of violence in this country, but without easy access to guns, a culture of violence kills no one. Maybe we should look more closely at helping those who are mentally ill to seek help. But without guns, the mentally ill can't shoot anybody can they? And without easy access to guns, those buffoons like Mike Huckabee would have less opportunity to spew their ridiculous notions about blaming lack of prayer in schools for all of society's ills.

Obama made it clear that something needs to be done, even if it is not politically expedient. I sincerely hope he has the guts to push for gun control legislation during his second term in office. Maybe he needs to draw a line in the sand now and make the midterm election a single-issue poll: Do Americans want uncontrolled gun access or do we want to grow up and decide that ownership of most types of guns is not necessary nor advisable.

3 comments:

nemuritoare said...

The 2nd amendment is also clear "The right of THE PEOPLE to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".... THE PEOPLE... not THE MILITIA

I'm sorry, but there's plenty of reason for a person to own a handgun.... in my case, I'm old and out of shape... If a young thug decided to break into my home, I'd have zero chance of protecting my family without a firearm.

Think this sort of thing only happens where there are guns... Google "Chinese school knife attack"

Fact is, there are bad people in the world, and when bad people decide to to bad things, they'll find and use whatever means they can, be it a knife, a gun, or a truck filled with fertilizer to make a bomb.

What I do know for certain... Bad people with guns can and are effectively stopped by good people with guns every single day in America.

Lets be honest here.... Schools are already a "gun free" zone... so effectively guns were banned where this happened... but guess the criminal decided not to obey that law any more than he obeyed the law that says you can't go around shooting innocent people.

What we need is increased security of our schools, such as good access control systems, so that a bad person with a gun can't get inside the building in the first place.

Jerry Wilson said...

A good home security system like I have is not only cheaper than a gun, it works much better. With a gun, you would have to wait for the burglar to get into the house and make his presence known to you somehow before you would then see the need to get your gun out. Then you would have to have your gun handy enough to use it. Then it would take time to load it assuming you're not careless enough to leave a loaded gun lying around. Then you would have to make sure you are not so nervous that you can actually handle gun appropriately and take aim. Then, if all that goes your way, you get to kill someone.

With an alarm system, the perpetrator is scared off long before he gets a chance to do anything, and the cops are called automatically. And what if he breaks in when you're not at home? A gun will do no good whatsoever.

The guns-for-safety excuse is a crock. There is no safety in guns unless the person wielding a gun is a trained police officer.

Eliminating guns will certainly not stop all violent crimes, but it will sure make it much tougher for those who would commit mass murder to get their job done.

Unknown said...

Extract from the Journal of Trauma-Injury Infection & Critical Care:
August 1998 - Volume 45 - Issue 2 - pp 263-267
Articles: Presented At The 11Th Annual Meeting Of The Eastern Association For The Surgery Of Trauma, January 14-17, 1998, Sanibel, Florida:

For every time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there were four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides.

AND YOU STILL WANT CITIZENS TO OWN THEM??