Gun control won’t fix school shootings
Casey Goodyear - February 28th, 2008Here we are again. Less than one year after the massacre at Virginia Tech, the nation is trying to come to terms with another round of useless, senseless violence as the massacre at Northern Illinois University leaves six dead and 16 wounded. Are we really, though?
Given the alarming frequency with which such attacks occur, it’s hard to believe that anyone is trying honestly to solve the problem. I know that it’s only a matter of time before everyone instinctively takes their side on the gun control argument. Just as hordes of people are bound to demand even stricter laws and regulations, others will surely push for less Second Amendment restriction. Some may even go as far again as to suggest that more professors, teachers and public officials be required to carry guns.
The issue isn’t just whether good or bad people have guns, though, but also whether the mentally stable or sick are armed. In this recent case, the gunman was allowed to buy weapons and ammunition legally because he had no criminal record. Never mind that he had diagnosed psychoses and had recently stopped taking his prescribed Xanax, Ambien and Prozac. Had another level of screening prevented one sale, the entire incident may have been avoided to begin with.
I have a hard time believing that people who constantly worry about who’s packing heat are more likely to trust each other. It’s a throwback to Cold War mentality to say that if we all have the means to blow one another away, we’ll all get along because we’ll be too scared to start conflicts. Whether the “enemy” is overseas or next door, it is unhealthy and abnormal to live in a constant state of fear.
The solution to this problem is not increasing our individual capacity to commit violence.
While I personally find candlelight vigils to be rather empty displays, maybe they’re on the right track. A community of sensible humans can come together to console one another after such a travesty, so why can’t they also unite to deal with the root of the problem instead of waiting on another catastrophe to which to react? While the NIU case had fewer warning signs than others, all recent school shootings have been the work of individuals known to have psychotic tendencies and symptoms of various sorts. These frighteningly common manifestations of individual insanity are indicative of a bigger problem.
Our world drives people to snap fairly regularly, so maybe we need to change something about how we live and relate to each other. If more love and compassion in our dreary daily grind could solve this issue alone, why introduce more potential tools of violence? More people need to take the step to trust their fellow humans enough not to keep the crutch of violence at hand. We can stop inflicting mass trauma and pain on one another, but we first have to decide whether it makes more sense to cultivate compassion or hostility to reach a state of harmony.
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Trust isn’t the defining factor when looking at the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. It wasn’t important to the VT or NIU victim’s families if the students trusted the gunmen who shot them, what mattered was that their sons and daughters were needlessly killed by psychotic men. It’s pretty plain and simple, people with documented mental instability shouldn’t be allowed to legally purchase firearms. However, given the intense drive of the two shooters, banning mentally instable people from purchasing guns won’t prevent them from obtaining deadly weapons.
It’s interesting (but not surprising) that college campuses are magnet locations for mass shootings. They are “gun-free zones” and potential murderers can pretty much depend on little or no real civilian opposition (hence such high death tolls). Malls, public schools, and recreation centers are pretty much helpless against the murderous whims of psychotic individuals determined to kill innocent people. To some extent, the second amendment was foresight into the possibility of this and gives everyone the right to feel secure that they can protect themselves.
March 8th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Speaking practically, the guns legislation could solve some problems with school shootings. On the other hand, it could make school shootings even more dangerous. The problem is no one knows what could happen, and all example used on both sides are hypothetical.
So I present the one truth. If a shooting occurs, students, faculty, gun holders nor police will know how to decipher between aggressor and defender. This legislation will set in place a system of potential unimaginable horror.
I also reject that this legislation will make anyone feel safer. Concealed weapons are exactly that, concealed. No one will know they are there so the only people who may feel ‘safer’ are those secretly carrying them.