Friday, April 20, 2007
I've been thinking about Virginia Tech and about what recently happened.
There is a quote. I'm sure you know it.
"Guns don't kill people. People kill people".
I think that it was said in the wake of the Columbine shootings by somebody associated with the National Rifle Association, but I might be wrong. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that it is correct.
(Hang on! Hang on! Don't throw things at me. Let me finish.)
However, it needs to be pointed out that a gun is a much more efficient device for implementing mass murder than a knife or a hammer or a baseball bat. You can do it at a distance. You can avoid getting blood and brains and shit on yourself. You don't have to feel the resistance of a body when you strike it. You can be cool.
Give a man the tools...
Sad though it is to say, I believe that the tragic events at Virginia Tech will trigger little if any positive action in the fight for gun control. Politicians of all parties will make sincere and heartfelt speeches of condolence, but will still vote for their vested interests; their paymasters in the Pro Gun Lobby. Attempts to remove or amend the line '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' in the second amendment of the American Constitution will fail, despite the fact that it was written for a completely different set of circumstances and is utterly inappropriate for the 21st century.
In a couple of more years you can expect another Virginia Tech, another Columbine, another Red Lake, another Nickel Mines and more mentally ill, sad, dispossessed, bullied, lonely, ignored outsiders on our TV screens.
No change. Business as usual.
Prove me wrong. I hope you do.
There is a quote. I'm sure you know it.
"Guns don't kill people. People kill people".
I think that it was said in the wake of the Columbine shootings by somebody associated with the National Rifle Association, but I might be wrong. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that it is correct.
(Hang on! Hang on! Don't throw things at me. Let me finish.)
However, it needs to be pointed out that a gun is a much more efficient device for implementing mass murder than a knife or a hammer or a baseball bat. You can do it at a distance. You can avoid getting blood and brains and shit on yourself. You don't have to feel the resistance of a body when you strike it. You can be cool.
Give a man the tools...
Sad though it is to say, I believe that the tragic events at Virginia Tech will trigger little if any positive action in the fight for gun control. Politicians of all parties will make sincere and heartfelt speeches of condolence, but will still vote for their vested interests; their paymasters in the Pro Gun Lobby. Attempts to remove or amend the line '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' in the second amendment of the American Constitution will fail, despite the fact that it was written for a completely different set of circumstances and is utterly inappropriate for the 21st century.
In a couple of more years you can expect another Virginia Tech, another Columbine, another Red Lake, another Nickel Mines and more mentally ill, sad, dispossessed, bullied, lonely, ignored outsiders on our TV screens.
No change. Business as usual.
Prove me wrong. I hope you do.
# posted by Pynchon @ 7:24 am 
Comments:
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There are about 11,000 gun deaths a year in the US. This is just a drop in the ocean. If that first figure hasn't made them change the laws over the past 50 years this won't either.
That quotation is used by the gun lobby in South Africa as an argument against stricter gun controls. I wonder if they're ever stopped to consider the meaning of it. If people kill people, then surely our efforts must focus on making sure that guns don't end up in the wrong hands. Thankfully, our gun laws get tougher every year. America, it would seem, is quite content to let its civilians get blasted away by psychotic individuals. What a waste!
Such a hideous waste...
And yes, people kill people, not guns. Mainly because a gun isn't capable of free thought or the ability to power itself. So I find that quote quite ridiculous, actually. It's like a strangler saying, 'I didn't kill that person - my hands did!' Weapons aren't designed to sit on a shelf on their own, looking pretty. They're designed for human use - namely, maiming and killing. People kill people with guns. People kill people with knives. People kill people with wires and ropes and poison. People kill people with their bare hands. A tool for murder will always be implemented somewhere along the line, even if it's just manpower alone.
'Knives don't slice vegetables. People slice vegetables.'
Yeah, and that makes sense too.
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And yes, people kill people, not guns. Mainly because a gun isn't capable of free thought or the ability to power itself. So I find that quote quite ridiculous, actually. It's like a strangler saying, 'I didn't kill that person - my hands did!' Weapons aren't designed to sit on a shelf on their own, looking pretty. They're designed for human use - namely, maiming and killing. People kill people with guns. People kill people with knives. People kill people with wires and ropes and poison. People kill people with their bare hands. A tool for murder will always be implemented somewhere along the line, even if it's just manpower alone.
'Knives don't slice vegetables. People slice vegetables.'
Yeah, and that makes sense too.
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