People Kill People - Virginia Tech
The debate on guns will go on well beyond the time when the Virginia Tech massacre has stopped making headlines. Do guns kill people? Or are people inherently violent?
“After last night’s news about a mass shooting in Virginia it was only a matter of time before people started talking about the right to bear arms being the reason for such things to happen, writes Dizzy.
Sky News is running a poll that suggest people think the gun laws are not strict enough in the US. However, in my knowledge and experience of gun laws in the US this view is jaded by misunderstanding of US gun control.
The vast majority of British people, I imagine, think that you can just walk into a shop in America, hand over some money, and walk out with a semi-automatic weapon or an assault rifle. That however is simply not the case. If you want a gun you face, quite rightly, background checks. If you want to carry a gun it is also the case in a vast majority of states that you must carry it on show and not concealed without a license to do so.
Knee-jerk gun control laws may seem like an appropriate measure, however, as we’ve seen in recent month in the UK, where we have strict gun laws, they are not holding back gun crime. The logic that strict gun laws will reduce gun crime is fundamentally flawed. I should say that I’m not advocating scrapping our gun laws here, more that the hand-wringing that will occur in the UK about these shootings in Virginia ought not be framed in the “stricter gun control would’ve stopped this” terms.
It’s a cliche of the pro-gun lobby to say “gun’s don’t kill people, people kill people”, but within that argument there is actually a subtle truth. For no matter what you ban, be it guns, knives, baseball bats or frying pans, if someone wants to kill people they will find a way to do it - by for example - purchasing acetone and some basic ingredients and putting them in a rucksack and getting on a train. In virtually every case of “mass shootings” the perpetrators turn the gun on themself, in that sense it makes them not much different to a suicide bomber only the bomb was bullets.
The next few day of British press comment will be interesting as I expect the usual suspects will roll out the column inches on how gun control is the only way to stop this. If the US chooses to take that route then that is of course their business, but if it does and then shootings happen again, you can guarantee that the answer will be “stricter gun laws” yet again. Knee-jerk banning is, after all, much easier than realising that human beings can be very nasty and will find ways to kill people if they really want to. The most interesting thing is that you never hear them calling for the ingredients of an acetone bomb to be banned.”
Anorak Forums
April 17th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
You forgot to mention that in Virginia, along with many other US states, it is possible to buy a gun at gun shows or from a private seller without a background check. This is where I think the debate should be focused. However, this debate should only be held after all the facts are in and there has been adequate time to mourn the senseless dead of these students and teachers.
April 17th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Weapons of any kind end up doing more harm than good. Why does the US feel it is necessary to posses such weapons anyway? I reside in Canada. We have our share of people obsessed with weapons. However, it is not a cultural “right” that people feel the need to posses one. Unless you are going touse it to kill, there is no need. Wake up U.S.A. you are just going to end up killing yourself anyway.
April 17th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Join the debate in http://www.anorak.co.uk/forums/
April 17th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
In response to previous comments: I live in Virginia, and have bought 2 weapons at gun shows - a rifle and a handgun. *Both* times I underwent a background check. The Virginia State Police were on the scene at both shows performing these checks for the dealers there.
Private sales of handguns are illegal here. In order for a handgun to legally change owners, both seller and buyer have to go to an authorised gun dealer so that both the weapons history and the buyers background can be verified.
April 17th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Letting criminals off with light sentences is responsible for the culture of permissive conduct. I see that the Viginia killer wrote a suicide note that he has been in the USA for 14 years and the US society is debauchery, etc. He should have packed up 13.9 years ago or immediately upon realizing this and return to S. Korea. His mind was poluted by America-haters. The liberal media (New York Times, BBC for example) is directly responsible for his derangement.
October 25th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
this is the most crazy thing a man can do but I he kill alot of niggers.