April 19, 2007
First and foremost, I want to express my deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the Virginia Tech students who so senselessly lost their lives. How unlucky. And how wrong.
In the midst of grappling with pointless loss, I have been wrestling with other issues that have emerged from this tragedy: the seriousness of mental illness, safety on school campuses, privacy rights and, most noteably for me, gun laws.
I believe in a person's right to protect him or herself. I believe that citizens have the right to protect themselves against unjust government. But I do not believe that a 23 year old kid has the right to buy two semiautomatic weapons with enough ammunition to last a year with such ease.
It just seems like common sense to me. Why is it easier to buy a gun than it is to volunteer? Seriously. Most volunteer programs have an application, a background check, and training. Some even require interviews and letters of recommendation. If I have to do that to serve people soup, I should definitely have to do that if I want to own a gun. Actually, I should have to do that to own a gun no matter what! Newsflash: Guns are really dangerous! Having an interview with a trained mental health professional and taking a safety course with a law enforcement professional before one can obtain a firearm seems like a good idea to me.
But maybe I don't even think people need semiautomatic or automatic weaponry to defend themselves. I know the argument that you can't stop the good guys (sane, ordinary citizens) from having guns becuase the bad guys (insane murderers/criminals) will still have them. But aren't there other means for defense?
There are lots of other facets to this issue and I am curious what you think. Let me know.
Also, for interesting facts and figures check out: http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=59
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States
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3 comments:
I typically object to drawing policy conclusions from extremely rare events. The boy was insane. Without access to guns he likely could have caused the same kind of death toll by blowing up the building or poisoning the dorm food.
I agree that policy conclusions about should not be drawn from extremely rare events. But I do believe rare events can make one think about policies. So what do you think of the present state of gun laws? Good enough or need reform?
I feel safe both in my local community and in the larger cities around the US. In 2004 there were only 17k deaths from homocide, of which firearm deaths were something like 60%. I just don't think it warrants more regulation given the numbers.
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