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Banning assault rifles is not going to solve the problem, and here's why. Someone who is intent on hurting others will find a way to do it, no matter what.
Consider that of two of the largest mass murders in U.S. history, one utilized fertilizer and the other one used planes. You don't need an assault rifle, or even a gun to kill lots and lots of people, just the will to do it and enough knowledge to make it happen.
And banning assault rifles will do nothing about the hundreds (probably more than a thousand) of children who die every year from child abuse.
But before my pro-gun friends get too smug, arming more people is not the answer, either. See sentence 2 in paragraph 2.
More specifically, while argument #1 will inspire people to find new ways of killing, this argument will simply make killers be more prepared for return gunfire. And the killer has one very distinct advantage - they know what they are going to be doing, and no one else does. Consider the Tower shootings at UT Austin in 1966 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman) How would having a gun have helped you if you had been there? Then there was the guy who shot up Fort Hood, in the middle of a military base filled with people with guns. He still managed to kill 13 people.
Before I go on to my next point, I want to clarify something about myself. I don't own any guns, and don't want to. I don't object to banning guns based on the 2nd amendment either. I object, because I believe it violates the spirit of a more fundamental right - the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Now both of these proposals share one trait - neither require the person making the proposal to give anything up. And that is what needs to change.
Until people are willing to make a true sacrifice, to give up something that they value, we will never even reduce this problem (I have no hope of eliminating violence - it's too ingrained into our psyche.) We each need to look at the groups we belong to, not the groups we don't belong to; to the things we do, not the things we don't do.
What do I think? I saw some themes when I was looking these events up: domestic abuse, bullying and suicide. I think that in some way, these events are perhaps an unrecognized form of suicide; an extension of the murder-suicide events that have become so prevalent. What I think will reverse this trend is not gun control, but those who are working toward ending domestic violence, bullying and suicide.
Consider that of two of the largest mass murders in U.S. history, one utilized fertilizer and the other one used planes. You don't need an assault rifle, or even a gun to kill lots and lots of people, just the will to do it and enough knowledge to make it happen.
And banning assault rifles will do nothing about the hundreds (probably more than a thousand) of children who die every year from child abuse.
But before my pro-gun friends get too smug, arming more people is not the answer, either. See sentence 2 in paragraph 2.
More specifically, while argument #1 will inspire people to find new ways of killing, this argument will simply make killers be more prepared for return gunfire. And the killer has one very distinct advantage - they know what they are going to be doing, and no one else does. Consider the Tower shootings at UT Austin in 1966 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman) How would having a gun have helped you if you had been there? Then there was the guy who shot up Fort Hood, in the middle of a military base filled with people with guns. He still managed to kill 13 people.
Before I go on to my next point, I want to clarify something about myself. I don't own any guns, and don't want to. I don't object to banning guns based on the 2nd amendment either. I object, because I believe it violates the spirit of a more fundamental right - the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Now both of these proposals share one trait - neither require the person making the proposal to give anything up. And that is what needs to change.
Until people are willing to make a true sacrifice, to give up something that they value, we will never even reduce this problem (I have no hope of eliminating violence - it's too ingrained into our psyche.) We each need to look at the groups we belong to, not the groups we don't belong to; to the things we do, not the things we don't do.
What do I think? I saw some themes when I was looking these events up: domestic abuse, bullying and suicide. I think that in some way, these events are perhaps an unrecognized form of suicide; an extension of the murder-suicide events that have become so prevalent. What I think will reverse this trend is not gun control, but those who are working toward ending domestic violence, bullying and suicide.
