This is an issue I finally decided to address in this blog. I tried to once before, but deleted that post. What drove me to finally write and publish something on the topic is first a local shooting at Clackamas Mall on Tuesday, with two dead and the shooter suicided. And now today I've read about the shooting in a Connecticut school with too many children dead.
When this sort of thing happens people tend to start screaming about gun control, and about how we need such laws to prevent massacres and other tragedies from happening.
But let me ask you a question.
Do you really think that criminals, or those who are about to become criminals, won't find illegal ways to get guns? Do you really? If they followed the laws they wouldn't be criminals in the first place. And I guarantee that if guns were outlawed then there would be a black market for them, same as there is for illegal drugs.
The local shooting was bad enough, but my brain doesn't want to accept what I've read about the school shooting. I don't even know what to say, other than that these things need to not happen. But I don't think that banning guns is the solution. Unfortunately, I don't know what the solution actually is.
6 comments:
There are no easy answers. Gun control laws seek to control the supply of weapons while ignoring the reasons for the violence. Understanding is the first step to creating a society where these things do not happen, or at least become far less common.
I've seen some people say that what we really need to change is our culture. I suspect that might help, but in what way should it be changed? And is it possible to intentionally change a culture?
Culture can be changed but it is a long, hard struggle. That's not to say it shouldn't be undertaken. Compare our society of today to even 50 years ago in regard to women's rights and LGBTQ rights -- there's been a big cultural change. And it's still ongoing. "Gun culture" in America and the views/assumptions which underpin it needs to be changed.
Debra She Who Seeks - A heartfelt thank you for writing the comment I intended for this morning and freeing me to expand on how culture changes. My dear, let this be your generation's challenge so that when you are my age you can look back with pride on how society has changed. Two hints: both sides on the gun ownership debate must work together to find a solution in which the other side does not feel threatened and society's power base must become more inclusive. I won't see the change in my lifetime, but you can if you work with like minded people to change society.
One step towards a solution that I think all reasonable people ought to be able to agree on is to keep guns locked away when they are not being carried. I know that some of the people who do the shootings use guns they've stolen.
At any rate, it would prevent kids from getting guns and threatening people, as recently happened in Portland. (http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Adult-arrested-in-11-7-year-old-gun-investigation-183031091.html) Although the father wasn't supposed to have a gun anyways in this case.
I had never thought or heard of this, but what about having to buy insurance for guns? Might help. Maybe. I haven't had much time to think about it. Explanations and rationale here: http://isthereagunproblem.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/a-proposal-to-reduce-gun-violence/
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