The title
of this presentation is a part of the National Rifle Association motto, a powerful
American society founded in 1871 with over 5 million members. The members of this association strongly
believe that “ only thing that can stop a bad man with a gun is a good man with a
gun”.
The
American right to have a gun in every home is guaranteed by the second
amendment to the American Constitution that was issued in 1791 - “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.” (original text). That was ages ago, when the world was a very different place than nowadays. Back in 18th century there was nothing like public order that was guaranteed by the government, and it was understandable that everyone had to protect himself and his family on his own. Back then the right to carry a gun was a natural thing.
amendment to the American Constitution that was issued in 1791 - “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.” (original text). That was ages ago, when the world was a very different place than nowadays. Back in 18th century there was nothing like public order that was guaranteed by the government, and it was understandable that everyone had to protect himself and his family on his own. Back then the right to carry a gun was a natural thing.
But over
200 years have passed and the world is a different place now. So is it really
necessary for us to carry a gun on daily bases? Nowadays there is no problem
for anyone across the United States to buy an assault rifle. Of course not only those
good guys buy them. There were a number of incidents (delicately said) involving
people publicly ( unfortunately after the fact) called insane. They usually
attacked public places with a lot of people in one place (schools, movie
theaters, universities etc.). those are only
a few of them:
- 1966 – 16 killed and 32 wounded by Charles Whitman at the University of Texas in Austin
- April 20, 1999 – 15 killed and 24 wounded by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in Columbine High School in Colorado
- April 3, 2009 - naturalized immigrant Jiverly Wong shot and killed 13 people and himself at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton
- November 5, 2009 - Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan shot and killed 13 soldiers at Ft. Hood near Killeen, Texas. It was the ninth deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
- March 10, 2009 - Michael Kenneth McLendon shot 10 people, two of them children and several of them his own family members, in a spree spanning the towns of Geneva and Samson
- February 12, 2010 - Robert Stewart shot and killed eight people at the Pinelake Health and Rehab convalescent home
- October 12, 2011 - Scott Dekraai shot and killed eight people at the Salon Meritage hair salon in Seal Beach, Calif
- 2012 - medical student James Eagan Holmes shot and killed 12 people inside a movie theater showing The Dark Knight Rises.
- December 14, 2012 - A heavily armed gunman kills 20 children and 8 adults at an elementary school in Newtown
Of course
these are only the major ones. Not a month passes by without a shooting with 2
or 3 casualties.
After each
and every one of these incidents the discussion about access to guns starts
from the beginning but nothing changes. Politicians are simply afraid to lose
their popularity. And NRA is mostly responsible for such state of things.
I don’t
want to blame the NRA for all those massacres. I even don’t think that such
easy access to guns is the only thing to blame (but I think that it is insane
that you can buy an assault rifle almost everywhere and riffle rounds are a
standard assortment at Wal-Mart). In the neighboring Canada there are
statistically over 2 guns for every citizen, and despite that we don’t hear any
news about such incidents in Canada. The society is to blame but easy access to
guns makes stopping these incidents practically impossible. But blaming one
thing for such complicated process is never right. But do you think that
anything will change in this matter, or having fully armed bodyguards at all
schools is inevitable?
What’s your
opinion? Do you think that gun access law in Poland should be less restrictive? Maybe
you have a gun at home? Or maybe you don’t but want to have one? Do you really
thing that it would make you feel safer if you had a gun at home? I personally
can’t imagine having a gun at home with
my kids hanging around, even if you have to store it in a safe.
Comments
If bad guy would know that in particular house (which we want to rob for example) is a person with a gun, he probably would reconsider if he really want to rob that house. Besides, now women seems to be quite defenceless in comparation to strong men which want to hurt them, but if they would have guns, they could defence themselves.
I don't have gun, but if possessing gun would be legal I would consider having one and yes, I think this would make me feel safer.
Anyway, considering the topic, I really like an idea that Chris Rock presented in one of his stand-up comedy jokes: make bullets really, and I mean really, expensive. That way somebody will really think twice before resorting to using a gun. I'm sure it's not as easy to do, as it is to say, but still sounds like a pretty good idea. Here's a link to this particular part of the whole show where Chris said it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db0Y4qIZ4PA
I have a gun in my flat but it its paintball marker :) If it would be easier to get permission for sure I would buy a gun. There is a lot of dangerous things for children in our homes like knifes, electricity and we live with that without big problems so just storing a gun in special safe is enough to be not afraid.
I'd want to have gun at home for my own safety. I'm not sure if guns should be accessible to everyone, I think that country/society like USA is more mature than Europe in terms of guns, for them it's element of identity and since their beginnings they had access to guns.
I think that on my own property I should be able to do whatever I want, including guns, drugs etc. As long as I'm not disturbing anybody else - it's ok.
What can you do and what you mustn’t do in your own home is a topic for another conversation, but to say it simple you can’t do whatever you want because you don’t live on some island all by yourself but you live in a society and your freedom is restricted by the freedom of others. That’s the basic law of democracy.
Also even if you had a gun you'd better never use it. Polish law is so great that if you hit an attacker one time too many then you will be going to jail.