Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Restrict?

On Monday morning (US time), the world stood still in Blacksburg, Virginia. My heart goes out to everyone who has lost a beloved, who was injured, and might still be fighting for their life, and to the family of the shooter. They all must go through a horrific time now.

Such a tragic occurrence should never have happened, and I'm wondering what the guy's motives were. I know I'm probably touching a hot potatoe here; but then I read that someone said, "it would have been less bad if a student or lecturer had a gun and shot the killer" and I think, Hello??! Are you seriously suggesting that more guns would have been a solution, and are, for future incidents? Does this sound like a clever idea?
I know it's in the American constitution, that everyone should be able to defend themselves and carry arms, but the constitution was written a long time ago under different circumstances. Life has changed, quite a lot actually, in more than 200 years. For example, the Bible says a lot about how one should live their life, too, but does society always stick to it? (I know that there are people out there who take the Bible literally, but I'm not talking about them) An eye for an eye? Sounds like a vendetta to me, if we all did this.

Back to my point: Is it necessary in today's United States to keep fire arms at hand? What for anyway? Apart from the constitutional right - what does a regular dude need a gun for, given that they're not a hunter/police officer/ranger/soldier/etc.? I start thinking, what are they afraid of? Anarchy? That can't really be it, or otherwise there would be anarchy everywhere in countries where there aren't many guns (like in front of my doorstep - believe me, everything's in right order out there). Isn't it about time to restrict the possession of fire arms, in order to try and prevent massacres like in Blacksburg in the future? Wouldn't having less guns also mean less abuse of guns?

As tragic the shooting in Virginia was, I hope it galvanizes people as to rethink and hopefully restrict access to fire arms. Charlton Heston said, "From my cold, dead hands" - they had to take two guns from the cold, dead hands of the student who shot himself and 32 others. I'd rather they had taken those guns from the warm and living hands of this student, and 32 more people would still be alive.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mike and i constantly debate about purchasing a gun. (we haven't because I'm worried about the kids) We live on 7 acres of land, we dont hunt but people hunt illegally on our property. I'm also alone with the kids while he is away at work for weeks at a time.
Its still hard for me to believe what happened in VA. Scares the daylights out of me. I worry about my kids enough when they are not with me.