Virginia Tech Massacre and Gun Control
Aby April 20th, 2007
The latest controversy and point of debate was raised after the massacre in Virginia Tech School. In this incident 33 people, mostly students had been shot dead by an assailant armed with two automatic pistols, who went on a shooting spree. The response of the people around the world to this tragedy ranges from grief to “If guns control laws were stricter, the Virginia Tech massacre wouldn’t have happened.” Guns do have a role to play in a large number of gun related crimes - it does not take big brains to realise that. Research and statistics shows that nearly two thirds of homicides in US involve use of a gun. In 1997 alone, out of 15289 murders in US 10369 were committed by firearms.
To many of us, the above statistics would imply that gun control and tougher laws on gun ownership would reduce crime rates. But in reality the issue of gun related crimes is much more complicated than the mere possession of guns or gun control laws. It wouldn’t help much if the only step taken to prevent such incidents is strict laws on gun ownership. Despite the restrictions and checks before the issue of a gun, a healthy thriving black market for firearms exists in USA which makes the actual gun control a Herculean task if not an impossible one. If some severe penalty were to be introduced for unlicensed possession of guns this might have had an effect, but as it is with controversy and appeasement – such a law is unlikely to happen.
In some cases guns actually ensure security for people, like in cases where the other party has a gun. For example, if an armed stalker is stalking a girl at night on a lonely street the chances of assault or harm would be reduced if the lady is armed too. The stalker would be unlikely to attack her (unless he is on a suicide mission). Here the equation gets balanced out on both sides which reduces the risk of crime. Someone would say, the stalker shouldn’t have had a gun in the first place but with a black market of guns, it is mere speculation or idealism.
A Swiss militiamen in supermarket after practice with gun sling over his shoulders. (Image from Wikimedia commons)
Is the mere possession of a gun conductive to homocides and violence? In Switzerland every adult male is issued an assault rifle which he keeps home as a part of his military duty. In China reserves are given high powered assault rifles and weapons to keep at home. In both these countries homicides by guns is very low compared to USA though they have more per capita guns than US. Switzerland has more firearms than any about any other country and it was and is one of the safest countries in the world, even during World Wars I and II. In China the reserves are highly trained on rifles and even given practice during firing squad executions of capital sentence criminals. But this does not cause the reserve forces to start on a killing spree of innocent civilians because they are also taught their job is to protect the nation and not to kill without need. The ammunition for rifles are also accounted for and reserve packs are sealed to prevent misuse.
To understand the cause of crimes like Virgina Tech Massacre of 2007 and Columbine High School massacre of 1999, one needs to understand the underlying societal factors and the mind of a killer. In the United States violence is highly glorified. A killer is respected as a strong hearted and courageous person except when the victims are Americans. Most of Hollywood movies like the action ones have themes where extreme violence and killings is shown as the most effective out of problems. Games are made with themes which show killing of people as ‘masculine’ or ‘professional’. The US Administration resorts to war at the drop of a hat, thus signifying to the public that killing thousands of people and bombing their houses as THE way to sort out problems. Anti-war people are shown as dissidents, leftists, cowards, unpatriotic and hippies or in short,‘uncool’ by the media. The end result is a society which does not respect the sanctity of human lives. As long as this intimacy with violence and guns exists, incidents like Virgina massacre or Columbine High School would keep recurring.
- World Politics , Crimes
- Comments(2)
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Seems to me what you’ve shown is that some countries can be trusted with guns, but America is not one of them.
I suspect the same applies to nuclear weapons, anti-satellite technology, laser and microwave weapons, in fact, most of America’s current arsenal.
That is not what I intended to show. The point of this topic is violence prevalent in American society while most of the blame goes for guns which is in fact nothing but a scapegoat. Statistics have shown in Switzerland, Finland or other high gun per capita countries that guns do not have a direct relation, the same applies for America. If they can stop a culture where violence is glorified in media, movies and social norms; it would change for the better.
For the weapons, yes it is a risk to world peace that American possesses them as it has shown in the past and present that it has a tendency to use the most destructive weapons against mankind. Which is the first country to use chemical, nuclear and biological weapons against an adversary. It is hippocritic that US points fingers at other countries when it had done the acts which it deems as ‘crimes against humanity’ when done is a much smaller scale by other nations. It is only prudent that Russia and China militarise themselves to defend themselves from such brutal adversaries.