Guns freely available: tragedies like Virginia Tech shootings are inevitable
Bottom line.
1. Guns are all but freely available in the US, to anyone over the age of 18, with almost worthless checks.
2. There are always going to be those who have a grudge and/or are mentally unstable, and want to cause harm to those around them.
1 + 2 = More massacres on the scale of Columbine, Virginia Tech, and worse.
It’s inevitable.
If the US stubbornly holds to their second amendment, they can’t expect anything less.
Shootings are a tragedy. They’re never totally avoidable – regardless of any laws and controls, someone with enough motivation can get hold of a gun and use it against innocent civilians – but WHY make it SO EASY?
Gun culture – creeping its way into Britain – is an evil, twisted culture that should have no place in modern society.
The primary purpose of a gun is to kill people. If a society decides that it’s more important to ‘protect’ themselves by being allowed to ‘bear arms’, then things are only going to get worse.
More, armed, security, only instills fear and mistrust where it’s placed.
Anyone on a mission to shoot, kill, and commit suicide, will go ahead regardless. All that armed security can hope to do is to reduce the number of casualties / fatalities.
My heart goes out to those who have lost family and friends in this tragedy. Please, think about those millions of lumps of lethal metal so revered, yet so destructive.
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April 24th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
It puzzles me, as a Brit, that people in the US demand their “right” to bear arms. I can understand people want to feel safe but this has the opposite effect as recent events prove.
What is going to happen when someone decides they need their own nuclear device to “defend” themselves? Assault rifles are available for those who want them. What on earth would anybody need an assult rifle for unless they are planning a small war?
The constituition was drafted in the days of muskets. I doubt those who wrote it would have approved of personal assault rifles and automatic weapons.
April 26th, 2007 at 11:30 am
You mean over 21. You can’t purchase a firearm under federal law until you are 21. Some states also have other requirements.
April 26th, 2007 at 11:31 am
It’s not a “right” – it’s a Right guaranteed to us under the Constitution.
Are you going to actually argue that you’re safer living in the UK where allegedly only the police have firearms?
Matt
April 26th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I was under the impression that some guns were available to over 18s in some states – apologies if that’s wrong.
I don’t think we’re necessarily safer in the UK, and no-one believes that only the police have firearms (even if that were true, I wouldn’t feel much safer) Gun culture is an increasing problem in Britain.