...why an 18-year-old would start blazing away at a classroom full of little kids. No reason, he just felt like it, apparently.
And don't give me that argument of 'Well, it was in Texas. They're like that.'
No, they're not.
The 'United States School Shootings Honor Roll' has Texas as one of the LAST states for school shootings. For those of you who like to point the finger at Colorado because of Columbine, our state's number is way down there, too. The clear winner? California.
And no, it's not just in the United States, either. Wikipedia's list of school shootings makes that clear.
Do you really think, as our esteemed president seems to, that magically making all guns illegal is going to suddenly solve these murders? (And the rest of the crimes, mass shootings, etc. etc. will just disappear.) If you believe that, then you could also be certain that criminals would be meekly linking hands, singing 'Kumbaya' and throwing their firearms in one big happy pile. (After all, they would never dare to keep them anymore -- that would be illegal.)
And the world would be a better place. For you. And me. Just wait...and see.
It's not going to happen. Even in countries that ban gun sales, people are still getting shot with -- guns.
What would be helpful, in my humble opinion, is not selling firearms to people who are 18. Or 19. Or 20. (That, based on the schools list, would have made it a heck of a lot more difficult for most of the shooters.) Also helpful would be a longer delay in actually finalizing gun purchases, so the purchaser's background could be double- and triple-checked before they take delivery.
But would this solve the problem?
Sadly, because people are people -- and there is evil out there --
NO.
4 comments:
Sorry. I respect your opinion but your logic is wrong. There are school shootings all over the world but overwhelmingly they occur in the USA. In Australia, where I am from. We had one mass shooting, not in a school but families and children were slaughtered and immediately our government made most firearms illegal. Since then we have had no further mass shootings. This was nearly 30 years ago. We do have small shootings relating to domestic issues that are usually murder/suicides but nothing on the scale that America has. I saw a placard at a protest which went something like…We, meaning USA allow slaughter of our children so we have the right to own and walk around with guns.
From my perspective that is what your society does and allows.
Maybe you should google your information from somewhere other than the NRA website
I've been trying to think what the answer is, and I just don't know the answer. But I do know that there were guns when I was a kid, but I don't remember any mass shootings like this. I was never scared of that. So maybe people who wish to fix things should look to see what has changed since my childhood. I can name many things-- video games, the internet, lax discipline in home and schools, and increased "realistic" violence on television. I know this is not an exhaustive list, but would it hurt to take a look at some of these things instead of blaming an inanimate object always?
Thank you for being a voice for common sense.
Thank you, all of you, for writing. Obviously this subject is important to you, too, and I appreciate your opinions.
I would love to say that it was all in the U.S., we just don't handle our gun laws well, etc etc...but the truth is that I didn't get those statistics off the NRA website at all. They came from Wikipedia, which is anything BUT conservative. (I included links in the article. Go take a look for yourself.)
Obviously something has to change. But making all (or even most) guns illegal is not the answer. Making purchase laws stricter would certainly help, though...and that's coming from a person who is not afraid of firearms. I grew up in a hunting family, with a dad who was a crack shot at protecting livestock from small predators. If you've been reading my blog, you also know that the Brick and our children are avid hunters...BUT we are extremely careful with our weapons. If the animal gave their life, we try hard to honor that by making it quick, and not wasting the meat. We also believe in protecting ourselves. (This has become especially clear in the situation we're currently in -- which I can talk about more, after it finishes.)
So...keep talking. I'm listening, even if I don't agree. I'd still like to hear what you have to say -- just, as I assume, you'd like to hear my viewpoint, too.
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