"Mass shooting at Batman screening" or "Dark Night: Mass Shooting at Batman Movie Premiere." These are two headlines of hundreds, if not thousands of news stories flying through the internet. I'm seeing them being posted on twitter, facebook, reddit.
I can't imagine the horror these people went through in those very short few minutes. They only wanted to watch a highly anticipated movie. Instead some nut job with, what some believe, a shotgun and some tear gas murdered 12 people in cold blood and wounded dozens more.
As with all horrific stories the gun control debate rises up. Social media sites become a shouting match, some against gun control, and what seems like most, for gun control.
An American citizen has a constitutional right to buy and own pistols, rifles or shot guns. The 2nd Amendment. Before moving back to the United Kingdom, I, personally, was issued a concealed carry permit from the Commonwealth of Virginia and owned a Smith & Wesson Sigma 40VE (which I carried concealed) pistol and a Walther P22 pistol (which I used mainly for range shooting because the ammunition was cheaper). I loved firing the pistols and I loved carrying them, and I loved owning them. It was a sad day for me when I eventually had to sell them because the United Kingdom has a no tolerance policy for pistols and revolvers.
A few weeks ago there was a major national news story in the United Kingdom about a gunman running around in Essex which is the next county south of where I live. It was on the radio and all over the British news sites online. I was amazed because in the United States, this story would have barely made the local news stations, let alone nationally.
It got me to thinking. Gun violence in the United States is common. Richmond, Virginia is a city of just over 200,000 people in it [link]. This year alone roughly 30 people have been murdered. Most of these appear to be gun related crimes. One of these was a dispute over $20. TWENTY ******* DOLLARS! Take a look at the map that NBC12 in Richmond is hosting. Each one of those blue markers represents a homicide in the Richmond area. I think I counted 25. 25 deaths in an area that contains a little over 200,000 people. Percentage wise that isn't a lot, but how do you judge the value of a life? Each one of those men and women were someone's brother, sister, daughter or son, or a husband or wife. A loved one. Despite the circumstances leading to each death, each one is a sad story. Today is the 208 day in the year 2012. Richmond is averaging a death every 8th day. By the end of 2012 there will be roughly 20 more deaths.
This commonality of gun violence in the United States has numbed us to it. It happens so frequently. The only reason last nights shooting is such large news is because of the scale of it. If you spread that over the last 7 months, it wouldn't warrant a small blurb in the local newspaper.
So, my question is, why not have gun control? Isn't life more important than a small amount of plastic and metal?
I have to agree that the gun laws in the states sometimes do frighten me. Having lived here in England for most of my life, I don't understand the fascination of the idea and rights that the states seem to have over guns. I know that the actual weapon itself is not to blame for the killings but the people who pull the trigger. Over here it is so expensive and complicated for a private individual to own a gun that most people just don't bother. It is not just the owning of the guns that is a major issue. Over here there seem to be two main catagories of people who do own them, country people who do organised shoots and criminals. The stigma of hand guns here is that they are for criminal use but recreational is mostly shot guns for shoots. Gun crime over here is so infrequent that it is a major shock when it does happen and sends shivers over the country. As a result of this people here have a more fearful look at the idea of owning a gun. Guns are scary items and think perhaps the states should promote that more over there. They really aren't toys that people are taught to use at a young age and should not be part of the norm.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that guns are scary. Far from it. They can be fun to own and shoot. My main concern about guns in the US is the sheer number of them. There had to be a least 20 stores within a 30 mile radius from where I lived in Virginia. The pawnshop where I had bought my Smith & Wesson Sigma 40VE pistol had hundreds of firearms in it. The sporting goods store where I bought my Walther P22 also hand a very large number of firearms.
DeleteThe sheer number of firearms that are available in the United States makes it easy for the people who you don't want to have one get one. THAT is my problem. Is it really necessary for someone to own 15 to 20 firearms? No. I do understand wanting to have different pistols for different situations, which is why I had two, one for personal protection (I figured if a 40cal was good enough for the FBI, then it was good enough for me) and one for fun at the range (40 caliber rounds are freaking expensive. :) ).
I'm just to the point that maybe the United States should implement some form of gun control, but I don't think they need to go to the same extreme as the UK though, because personally, if the law here allowed it, I would own again. However, since I'm a law abiding citizen, I'll have to do without.