Virginia Tech Shootings
Like the rest of the world, I've been following the Virginia killings story and my heart goes out to the victims and families who were involved in this senseless tragedy. So, when I hear comments like "well, all the students should carry guns to school to protect themselves," I think, What? Is that not the most absurd thing you've ever heard?
I just read that a third of all the guns in the world are in the U.S. I'm not bashing all gun owners or the U.S. by the way but really, I'm sure that many of those people have no business running around with killing machines, which brings me back to the Virginia Tech Massacre.
Apparently, Virginia is one of the easiest states in America to obtain a gun. No background checks required for private sales, no waiting period. Heck, you can even order a gun off of the internet? Now let me see am I going to order a book or a GUN? So basically the entire procedure of getting a gun is pretty easy. No fuss, no muss and bingo just about any Tom, Dick or Harry can acquire a gun. Not a problem.
No problem that is until a fella with issues like the guy responsible for the Virginia killings takes matters into his own hands. This fella had two handguns. It seems everyone is going into an in depth analysis as to why he did what he did, wondering if there were too few warnings from authorities, etc. etc. all valid concerns and I'm not trivializing any of them.
But isn't the most pressing problem at this time getting people on the bandwagon in pushing for legislation that won't let an incident like this happen again or at the very least reduce the severity of it? Since Columbine, which happened eight years ago this week, there has been no new legislation on control of guns or ban on assault weapons.
Many people believe that the availability of guns in the United States makes it easier for people to commit murder everywhere, including in schools and colleges. Most countries in the world implement legislation to control the sale of firearms, limiting the availability of guns with the result being less violent crimes - according to various studies. The gun industry in the States is big business though, approximately 2 billion a year and money talks as they say.
It has been said that the violent episodes such as that at Virginia Tech are just a result of a violent culture. The shootings were just an extreme form of that violence. In other words, guns are a "tool" to carry out that violence. Well why not make that tool a little less accessible to people who are not capable of handling it responsibly.
