Guns = Death
February 15th 2008 02:18
In any other country this would qualify as an epidemic. And let's not forget we're only talking about college and high school shootings here, which is only a fraction of the 28,000-plus gun related deaths each year in the United States of America, the self-proclaimed champions of democracy and western civilisation.
Gun control is an issue that looks, to the rest of the civilised world, as black and white an issue as is possible in the political and social spectrum. But then we haven't grown up in a nation where some say that carrying a gun isn't a right but a civic duty. It's the deep seeded link between patriotism and bearing arms, which is the root of the problem, and it goes all the way back to 1789 when the US's Bill of Rights was first put forward.
Part of the Bill of Rights was the second amendment, which read:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Civilisation has moved on. Despite our failings we are now more compassionate and fair than ever before and the truth is, even if we were allowed to freely purchase guns, I know I wouldn't. Those US gun-toting 'patriots' hiding behind the ideology of their beloved 200 year old constitution should consider their words and actions very carefully - one day it could be their child staring down the barrel of a gun.
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