More About Guns
I’m sorry I haven’t written sooner, but I’m refueling myself, taking a break traveling and soaking up new horizons.
On my travels, I’ve spoken to a number of Americans, who staunchly defend their right to bear arms. One compared their position to the Swiss, who also believe in the need to own guns in order to know how to defend themseles. But as my husband points out, Switzerland is a small country in comparison to the USA and doesn’t have the military machine that the Americans have. They do not have the same history with war. Nor do they have the fear factor that is encouraged by the media. Hence, they don’t have the same incidences of violence within their land. In Canada, we have problems with homocidal rage and insanity but we can drive our highways, experience road rage, and not worry that someone in the next car will pull out a gun. It’s one thing to have the ability to defend yourself, it’s another to believe that the enemy is next door or about to invade.
I also wonder how much the gun issues have to do with big business. President Eisenhower worried aloud at the end of World War II about the military industrial complex that had developed during his time and how that would play out in the future. We see the results all over the world. Hopefully, reason will prevail and keep the barbarians away from the gate.
Please check out my post What Is It About Guns? This is a monumental issue, one that I wish the politicians running for American office would address.
Absolutely. This is indeed becoming a huge issue, not to mention that the rate of the mindless killing sprees increased rapidly since Aurora. Last is this one in Quebec.
After reading this excellent post, I went immediately to your other post, “What is it About Guns?” and read through all the comments as well. This is a very real and dangerous issue that is affecting every aspect of our lives. Yes, cries for control erupt after every tragedy, countered by more lobbying from the NRA. We politicize at every opportunity but I think the issue runs much deeper. The United States began as a nation much differently than Canada. Guns played a major role in their emancipation from Britain and, since that time, have been inexorably tied to a sense of freedom. When the freedoms are eroded, as is happening now in the current economic climate, people panic. New information indicates that the tragedy in Quebec may have come about because, however sick and misguided, someone was in fear for their livelihood and in our world, that equates with life. My point is that gun control will do nothing to solve the problem but may only exacerbate it. We need changes at the very foundation of our society. Big business is indeed running the show and this has dire results in a ‘free society’ when people begin to see through the charade, as they are doing now. Perhaps if we were less feudal in our system and more socialist within our democracies, there would be less desperation. Our economic system is broken on a global scale. We are on brink of a catastrophic war and our collective personal debt is out of control. In my opinion, this is where our attention should be before we can begin to resolve violence. I think we need to stop trying to put a band-aid on an arterial bleed.
Alexandra, thank you for taking the time to comment so well. I agree that economics is at the root of the gun problem. The same people who control the money control the guns. The powerless, that is, the downtrodden, often feel backed up in a corner, and their intense frustration can play out through violence against innocent others. But then, we can only look to Japan and see it’s more than economics. “Authorities in Japan have made it very difficult for most of the country’s citizens to own guns. As a result, shooting deaths are rare.” This quote from an article http://www.theworld.org/2012/07/gun-violence-virtually-a-thing-of-the-past-in-japan/
Thank you for that link. On a personal level, I think guns are terrifying and would never want one in my home but what do we do when Pandora’s Box has been opened and lain unattended for more than 200 years? I found the figures for gun ownership in America staggering! There are 890 guns for every 1000 people and after this latest tragedy at Aurora, even more people are arming themselves. While, as the article in the link pointed out, shooting deaths are rare in Japan, it’s disturbing that extreme violence in Japan seems to be escalating, especially among teens. The weapons of choice are baseball bats, hammers, and knives.
“Socio-political and economic instability trigger psychological instability or uncertainty, and all this, I believe, is contributing a great deal to the rising brutal crime,” said Masao Omura, a criminal psychiatrist at Tokyo’s Nihon University. Omura said a breakdown of traditional values exacerbated by a decade of economic stagnation and rising unemployment amid an increasingly fast-paced lifestyle was also a major factor behind the rising crime rate.
“Japan is in a state of social breakdown,” he said.”
The link is here: http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2001/0621/cn9-1.html
I don’t know what the answer is to our current situation but I think it involves many factors that have been previously disregarded. Violence has become a global issue and we are getting bogged down by the politicizing and lobbying by powerful groups like the NRA. It certainly supports your theory that money is at the root of it.