Seven people, including the perpetrator, are dead in Wisconsn following yet another shooting in the United States. These are my thoughts:
Guns don't kill people, people kill people is a bullshit argument.
People kill people, yes---thats why guns were invented. So, yeah, maybe its time to reconsider America's attachment to guns, and maybe make them harder to acquire, or at least ensure the irresponsible and the wicked do not have any easy time to access them. Don't throw the Second Amendment under the bus but emphasize that "well regulated" precedes "keep and bear arms."
Americans have a fondness for guns that precludes any sense of reasoning. Yes, guns are easily available in Switzerland, but Switzerland has compulsory military service where responsible gun ownership is no doubt drilled into every citizen; as well, there is a sense of community in Europe that America lacks. Frankly, Americans are too wedded to their concepts of freedom for their own damn good. I won't deny the United States did well by giving its people greater latitude than exists, past or present, in many countries around the world, however I do think that there needs a public influence to counter its worst affects. Ideally by the government---but that is unspeakable.
Freedom in the United States precludes competence and responsibility. As long as the people have guns they are free is a load of bullshit. A country needs a legal appartus to shield people from abuses of its government, and likewise, the abuses of their fellow citizens.
A hundred and fifty years ago guns were an essential tool for settling the broad American frontier. But America is no longer a frontier country, a concept that has trouble sinking into the heads of Americans. The idea of America as a nation of strong, free gun toting cowboys makes for great movies, but translated into reality it is anything but desirable.
Don't think that more ownership of guns will make the United States safer. The perpetrator in the most recent shooting was killed by a police officer. Guns are just a glorified security blanket, feeding into the myth of American self reliance and poorly formed perceptions of heroic resistance.
Guns are unessential to a free country. Granted, the Canadian experience is not the American experience. I don't think that differences are that profound.
Certain firearms should not be in the hands of the public. Full stop.
Having a handgun for self defence is one thing, and I am not threatened by hunting rifles (shotguns, maybe). Having a semiautomatic weapon, however, crosses the line.
Klashnikovs, M16s, etc. are designed to kill large numbers of people in a very short time. No other purpose. Their use for hunting, and by that I mean hunting anything other than the Viet Cong, is limited---and I have to ask, what type of person is cruel enough to go after deer with teflon coated bullets and a semi automatic rifle? Really, if it takes more than six shots to hit people, learn how to aim better.
In Canada firearm ownership is an alienable right: you have to fight for it, prove that you need it. You cannot buy it the same way you can buy a shovel or a car. Some would think that this is an imposition upon our freedom. Why? The government imposes limits all the time, and I think it is hypocritical and absurd that firearms, that exist solely to take life, are outside any regulation. I don't think it is unfair to explain why you need a gun, and it better be a better reason than "because I want to."
I'm probably trampling on toes by suggesting that the government have a greater say into who can carry a gun and what is acceptable for self defence. I don't care. Asking you to have reasonable expectations and resonsible behaviour is not tyranny. A more aggressive system to filter out the unstable and the criminal from firearm ownership is common sense.
MURIKA, Fuck No!
I live in hope that this incident causes Americans to reconsider how they've been percieving Islam or non-Abrahamic faiths and their increasingly multicultural country. The perpetrator in question was an avowed white supremacist who was no doubt hunting for turban heads to kill, if the 9/11 tattoo he was purpoted to be wearing was any indication. Attacks on Sikhs have increased considerably since 9/11, since they are a clear visual target. However, Sikhism is not Islam---a distinction that is not stressed enough.
Education as to faiths outside of the Abrahamic tradition, and even within, is very cursory, if at all. Misinformation about Islam abounds, exacerbated by a pitiful education system and a media full of howling jackasses. It is embarssing how the United States can assert the diversity of its people if they have to scratch their heads and wonder who, exactly, are these people. If you're going to be bigoted, do your damn homework.
Everyone wearing a turban is "The Other" and it is very easy to make the connection to "The Enemy." Over the past decade, over the course of two unsuccessful wars, Americans have formed impressions of fighting primitive savages in glorious wars of freedom. They're not. They are not doing their cause any favours by substituting imagination for information. Anyone who suggests that, of course, is a terrorist appeasing liberal who hates America, or whatever it is Fox News will tell them to believe.
Thats not fair. Not to America's values, and certainly not to the people who live in the United States, especially the ones that left their homelands to find better lives in a supposedly tolerant country. I'd like to think that this is a moment where sophmoric attitudes about them dirty stinkin' turban heads is reexamined. I'd really like to. But it probably won't.
Once again, following the Colorado shooting a month ago, firearm sales will skyrocket, and the media will babble on about what should be done, though I'm pessimistic that this shooting will capture the public imagination the same way the Aurora shooting has. This happened not to God-fearin' good Christians but a faith that is neither in significant numbers nor well understood, which will probably drive many in the worlds to frenzy.
I just hope that a long, long time will pass before we revisit the issue (because there is no other way to approach the issue). But I really doubt it.
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