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The Virginia Tech shootings seem to have re-invigorated calls for gun control. I'm sure you can find the articles, they're all over now.
It's an interesting thing for me. I own guns, although I haven't used any of them for years, and no longer particularly care whether or not I do. So I have at least a theoretical interest in keeping guns available. I also grew up in a very anti-gun family, and I retain a lot of that sentiment -- the only things I've ever shot at have been made of paper or clay on a controlled firing range. The thought of killing anything, no matter the method used, is repulsive to me (part of the reason I'm still a vegetarian).
So, I guess I'm what you could call a neutral party in the gun control debate.
This provides me with the perspective to say that, honestly, it's never going to work. Gun control in this country will never be successful, if they keep going at it the way they are now.
Let's go on a little historical journey. This is all from memory, so I'm probably getting some parts wrong, but the gist of it is accurate, and that's all I'm trying for.
Back in the day, say, 600 years ago, your average European person (who would have been a serf or peasant in most areas of Europe) was not allowed to possess weapons. Tools were fine, which is one of the reasons you think of pitchforks and scythes when you imagine "popular revolt" -- people didn't have swords and daggers, so they used what they had.
In order to carry a weapon like a sword (or, later, a gun), you had to be in one of several special classes: noblemen, military, some sort of guard function (which is close enough to military that I'll just lump them together) or an outlaw. This meant that your average person (roughly equivalent to today's middle class, although the comparison is only apt in terms of percentages of the population) went their entire lives without being allowed to legally possess or carry a legitimate weapon. Only a few priveliged people were allowed to carry weapons, and only a subclass of those people (ie, the nobles) were allowed to carry them while "off-duty."
Fast forward a few hundred years. Europeans start colonizing America. It's a wild frontier. Not only is everyone allowed to possess and carry a weapon, it's practically mandatory, what with all the Indians and bears and moose and rabid killer squirrels and whatnot. It's a wild adventure. Everyone loves a wild adventure, and the country grows. As it grows, the mindset is firmly cemented that in America, everyone carries a gun. No longer is it forbidden for the average person to arm him (or even her) self. In fact, it's encouraged. Finally, everyman has one of the rights of a gentleman. But only in America.
Now kind of fast-wind your way through history in America. Guns continue to feature in a lot of things that happened. Guns, in fact, are an integral part of the culture, all the way up to the present day. It's every person's right to carry a gun; it's right there in the constitution, right?
Sure, you can read it that way. You can read it other ways too, but I'm not about to touch that debate.
My point is that America was, in some very literal ways, founded on this idea of everyone being armed. In America, everyone has that previously "nobles-only" right. It's built into the culture. Anyone who wants to, provided they're not a convicted criminal or crazy-person, can buy a gun. Even convicted criminals and crazy-people can buy guns, if they go about it the right way. Why? Because the culture in America assumes that guns are a basic right, just like liberty and free speech. Even more than that, they're a means of distinction from "everyone else" (ie, other countries).
Ok, so where does this leave us? There's a movement to "ban guns." They're dangerous -- they are: the only point of a gun is to put big, angry holes in things, and the only way that's really useful is if you're doing it to destroy something. So, granted, guns are dangerous. On that basis, they should be restricted (no one is actually talking about banning guns, they're all talking about restricting them to some sub-class of people who are allowed to have them). Everyone knows that an outright ban would never work.
Other countries (take Britain or Australia, for instance) are held up by the pro-gun folks as shining examples of why it's bad to ban guns and take them away from everyone. Suddenly, a guy with a knife is a major threat to public safety. A whacko with a barely-tolerated hunting rifle is unstoppable.
And that's the thing: barely-tolerated. People don't like guns in those places. People in America like guns. Guns represent our power, and our independence. Taking away Americans' guns is tantamount to emasculating them and enslaving them, or so goes the train of thought. The culture of America believes it, so it's true.
The change isn't that we need to ban guns. The change is that we need to change our culture. It's a big, big task, bigger than any one person or even large group of people can do. It's a task which will take everyone in the country, and we're already evenly split on whether to vote for Awful Politician #1 or Awful Politician #2 for president every four years. If you want to get rid of the guns, you have to change the culture. It has to become not-ok to own or use guns, and it has to be a universal change.
When we become a culture in which it's a faux-pas to own, carry or use guns, the gun control advocates will get what they say they want. Until that point, attempts at gun control will be just that -- attempts, and probably failed attempts most of the time. Crazy-persons will still be able to get guns, because some of them aren't crazy enough to register on our meters, like happened this last Monday in Virginia. Don't try to feed me a line about putting more and more restrictions on the sale or whatever. Not gonna work. If you don't change the culture, the guns will still be there, and anyone who wants one will be able to get one. Regulations are made to be circumvented, and you're talking about a country full of people who are proud of their circumvention skills.
I'm not trying to advocate either the pro- or anti-gun position here (although as I re-read what I've written, I realize that I'm really writing to the gun control advocates of the world). I'm just throwing up a reality check. Shout all you want, protest and lobby Congress and do whatever, but until our culture changes, guns will be available. Until we stop glorfying guns, and start villifying them, nothing will change.
Posted at 18:05 permanent link category: /misc
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater