Will getting tough on gun laws prevent tragedies such as Sandy School massacre? I say Yes and No. Do we need AK47 assault rifles? Maybe Yes and No.
The main problem is not with the guns themselves. It is a society problem. Our society produced the type of person that would go out and buy the gun and turn it on children and other human beings. We have very realistic video games where you blow the bad guys head off. You walk down the street in the games and kill everyone in site. In the 50s we had violent westerns. But those westerns had good guys and bad guys. The bad guys were killers, the good guys would round up the bad guys without killing them if possible. Growing up in the 50s did not produce a large crop of sickos that went out and killed in mass.
In the 50s – 80’s we had more mental facilities. We had less homeless. We had more affordable healthcare. Today, most of the state mental facilities (as flawed as they may have been) have been shut down for budgetary reasons. Our homeless rate skyrocketed following these closures which turned thousands of people with mental disorders onto the streets. Today, many families can not afford to go to the doctor when their child displays abnormal behavior. We have more mentally unbalanced adults parenting mentally unbalanced children.
So let’s backtrack. Today’s TV shows are more violent with more gore and blood. Movies go a step further and have even more gory detail. Video games have become more violent and much more bloody and gory…. and are now available to play on cell phones – all day long. Take this pre-programming, add an unbalanced individual, add a plethora of drugs available and our society has raised a mass murderer.
Instant fame – even 15 minutes of fame – seems to dominate our young and even older adults. YouTube & Facebook has made this phenomenon even more possible. So you can see the Molotov cocktail we as a society have created.
Now back to the gun issue. Do guns kill people or do people kill people? Answer is both. Society has created the potential mass killer, now what? If we made it harder to obtain a gun would that help. Yes. Would it stop this vi0lence. No. But just stopping some is a step in the right direction.
If we limited the type of guns available would that stop the killing? No. But it may prevent that 10th, 11th, 20th person in the killer’s sight from being shot. So, do we need assault type weapons? Some feel it is our right to have them in the event we need to protect ourselves from an invasion or a rouge government. A six shooter against an invader with high power, automatic weapons that hold 60+ shots would not be a fair fight. Isn’t it our right to be able to own the weapon of our choice to protect our family in the unlikely event of a major disaster or invasion?
Sure, the possibility of an invasion is very, very remote. But what about an apocalypse? We see movies all the time. The bombs fell, life as we know it is no longer… the bad guys take over, the mentally disturbed that should have been institutionalized, but aren’t because we closed the facilities are roaming the street. There is no law except the law of the land which means looting, rape, murder, mayhem. It sure would be nice to have an AK 47 assault rifle to protect my family.
Would I personally buy an assault rifle? No. Too expensive and I don’t think there will be an apocalypse. Should you have the right to purchase an assault rifle? No. Sometimes you have to weigh the pros and cons, and the likelihood of an apocalypse vs. the likelihood of that gun in the wrong hands turned against innocent citizens and children. The answer becomes clear. Get the assault rifles off the street. Get the mega-clips that hold tons of bullets off the streets.
There are plenty of weapons and guns left for you to purchase to protect yourself and your family. If you want more bullets, buy more 9 bullet clips. Will this prevent mass murders with guns? No. But as I said earlier… it may prevent that 10th, 11th, 20th victim from being mowed down by a spray of bullets.
Will bad guys still get assault weapons and large clips? Yes. Were there is a will there is a way. So, yes, the bad guys will still have illegal weapons. We can make stricter laws if you are caught with one… mandatory jail time, no parole. But in most mass murders such as Sandy School, it wasn’t what we would call a “bad guy”…. it was a “sick guy” that was a product of society.
We need to make it as difficult as possible for “sick” people to own weapons of mass destruction. If we do that, then maybe the next school, mall, or movie shooting won’t be quite as bad and that 10th, 11th, 20th victim may be you or a loved one that didn’t get shot because the shooter not only had to pull the trigger to fire each shot, he had to reload after firing 9-10 rounds… and was able to be stopped by a hero in the crowd.
Yes, we have the right to bear arms and to protect ourselves and our family. No, we do not need assault rifles and large clips of bullets to do it. Yes, society has to take a good look at itself and start promoting the type of person we, as a society, want as our neighbor.
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