I just heard the Seante shot down a gun control law that would have made background checks more "intense" or something.
I say YAY! Success!
Unfortunately it was rather close. It got 54 votes, but needed 60 votes. Whew, that was close one.
Let me be clear. First of all this desire for more restrictive gun control law(s) is primarily motivated by these rash of teenager/young-adult killing sprees in schools and other public places. These tragedies should instigate a re-evaluation of how we, as a society, create or allow these events to occur.
Gun control has nothing to do with it. For instance the last tragedy I heard about, wherein a psychologically disturbed son, went to the school his mother worked at, and proceeded to shoot children, teachers, and his mother. The guns he used were purchsed by his mother. So a gun law requiring further or more thorough background checks, would have had ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT ON THIS TRAGEDY. That's right. This gun law will not keep your children safe. Had this law been in place a year ago, there still would be dead children and teachers.
But that's not even the biggest problem with this scenario and gun laws. The biggest problem is attempting to blame the social problems on inanimate objects, instead of on individuals and society. Instead of trying to make guns illegal or more restricted, we should be asking ourselves how these events came into play. For instance in the previously mentioned tragedy, I had heard that the "shooter" had gone to the school because he was extremely upset that his mother would send him to a mental hospital. The very fact that he thought going to a school with a weapon to confront his mother was an appropriate response demonstrates his mental instability. So the better questions aren't "How did he get those weapons? And how can we make that more difficult?", but "Why didn't he get help? Why wasn't he in a mental institution? How did things get so far that these events could happen?"
Guns are inanimate objects; they are tools. Guns do not create crime. The arguement that they make crime easier is valid; however crime will not be eliminated by the elimination of guns. To eliminate crime we have to confront it at it's core, it's roots, it's cause, not it's symptoms.
So why have guns at all? Well you can blame Great Britain for that. When rational discourse failed between the colonists and the British Empire, violence seemed the only solution for justice. As such the founders understood a need for individuals (constituents) to own and maintain defensive weapons were their government to ever revert to a fascist construct. Considering we now live in a nation that is heavily influenced by "the 1 %", lobbyists, corporations (they are NOT people, DAMN IT!!), and other groups with money, plus the fact that we have politicians who are more concerned with being noted in the annals of history as opposed to actually attempting to help our country, I think it is absolutely necessary to put few restrictions on the purchase of guns and for individuals to acquire his/her own personal gun.
So to sum up:
Gun control laws will not protect our children.
FUCK U Gabrielle Giffords!!!!! "so that we can look parents in the face and say: we are trying to keep your children safe."
FUCK U Mayor Bloomberg!!!! "Children lost and they're gonna die, and the criminals won. I think that's the only ways..ways to phrase it."
