Random Thoughts on Gun Control

If the only purpose of guns is to kill, and therefore only the government should have guns, does that mean the purpose of government is to kill?

Oh, I get it: government needs the guns to protect us, but if individuals had guns, they'll just kill people. Individuals never use guns for defense.

Countries with more restrictive gun laws have lower gun violence rates than the U.S.A. But so do countries with even more guns per capita, like Switzerland and Israel. Of course, in those countries, people are taught to use guns responsibly, whereas in America guns are either feared or fetishized.

That's the way in America behaves. Puritanical taboos make lots of things - sex, drugs, alcohol - objects of obsession pro or con.

Take out the War on Drugs, how does America's gun violence rate compare? Then again, other countries prohibit drugs, too.

Leave a bike in a public area unlocked in Tokyo, nobody touches it. Leave it in a similar location in any American town big enough where everybody doesn't know everybody, it's gone in five minutes. In other words, there are other factors, such as culture, that play a role in America's crime rate.

When all is said and done, the right to bear arms, the right to self-defense, is the very definition of the right to life. The concept of "right to life" is meaningless if it doesn't suggest, in its very definition, the right to bear arms. If one is prevented by the State from defending oneself from aggression, then life is a privilege granted by the State, not a right.

It is unfortunate that most of the people who "get it" on guns don't really "get it" when it comes to our other civil liberties. If Bush declares martial law, instead of resisting, many of these folks will cheer.

Virginia Tech

Eight years ago, a co-worker asked my reaction to Columbine. I said I was more concerned about the war on Serbia. Later I apologized to the co-worker for my insenstivity because I remembered she was from Colorado and Columbine hit close to home. But she said that there was nothing to apologize for and it was easy for her to overlook tragedies when they happen overseas.

I feel the same away about the shootings at Virginia Tech as I did about Columbine. Horrible and tragic, to be sure, but also an isolated incident. There is nothing to think about, no action to take. These things happen, but they rarely happen, and there's nothing we can do to stop them other than allow peaceful individuals to protect themselves in public. The number of people with the will and the means for mass murder is one in tens of millions. Any action we might take to prevent it will only infringe on the freedom of innocent, peaceful people and will not stop determined murderers.

I am sad for what happened, but meanwhile, dozens of Iraqis are killed each day, largely due to our invasion and occupation of their country. I'm sad about that, too.

I will comment on this topic in my Partial Observer piece this Thursday.