Pro Life
While the whole country is engaged in debates on whether Terry Schiavo's feeding tube should be disconnected,with the pro-life lobby saying its a "sin" to take a life away, the horrible shooting incident in MN yesterday that claimed 10 lives(including the life of the shooter) seems to be a secondary issue. The shooter in question , a 16 year old named Jeff Weise, shot his grandfather ( a veteran police officer) and his companion, stole additional weapons , a holster, bullet-proof vest and the squad car and then proceeded to Red Lake High School, where he shot the security guard and opened fire on the students. He finally ended the carnage by shooting himself in the head. This is the worst shooting since Columbine in 1999. To be fair, the media is covering this incident avidly, and the President did issue a statement expressing "regret" over the incident. But I'm sure that nothing will happen beyond this - whatever details are revealed by the police and whatever recommendations are made to enhance security, Congress won't meet with the urgency they did for Terry Schiavo ( to appease the pro-life social conservatives and evangelists) . In fact no "real" steps will ever be taken since it would involve stricter gun laws and that would provoke outrage among the NRA and gun lobby. Unfortunately in a country where people who are pro-life go to any extent to prevent lives from being "lost" through abortions and euthanasia, so many more lives are "lost" every year because of opposition to gun restrictions by most of the same people.
posted by mightypen @ 6:47 PM
4 Comments:
It's a little somthing called the 2nd Amendment.
And while other amendments do address citizens' rights around life, guns are much more tangible and definable than life ever will be.
Which is not to say that the 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with life - on the contrary - it is all about one's ability to protect one's own life (among other rights). It's protecting the rights of the defenseless that gets a little more complicated.
The 2nd attempt allows people to "bear arms" so that they can defend themselves. Exercising gun control laws does not take away that right, it would merely serve to protect the "defenseless" when they are attacked by those who misuse the right provided by the 2nd amendment. There needs to be a balance while looking at this issue, which unfortunately does not exist.
Tell me - how would gun control have helped in this case? The guns were purchased legally (by the kid's grandfather), and presumably had been available for some time (so waiting periods wouldn't help either). The problem here was that a legitimate gun owner left the guns where they were accessible to a kid, and had apparently not done a good enough job of teaching this kid some responsibility.
Gun control doesn't make sense if it won't actually prevent crime, and only ends up treating regular citizens like criminals.
Maybe we don't need gun control as much as better birth control. ;)
Before stealing his grandfather's guns, the kid used a .22 caliber gun to shoot him. Its unclear from where he got this gun. Statistics show that the US is the country with highest number of gun related deaths compared to other countries with stricter laws. This is definitely not a coincidence and nor is it due to more "ethnic mixing" (as Charleston Heston said), it all points to lack of gun control. Having stricter rules for guns does not treat ordinary people like criminals.. it will definitely go a long way in preventing the unnecessary deaths that occur every year due to lack of control.
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