Tembak

‘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 infringe’.

Thus states the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Some say it is outdated, a relic of the war between the British and the colony. Some say it is guarantee that all individuals have the right to bear arms. And be damned with the consequences, of course.

The single deadliest shooting in the Unites States (nothing compared to the daily quagmire that the US has reduced Iraq down to) occurred in a university in Virginia, which happens to be the headquarters of the National Rifle Association (one of the biggest lobbyist in Capitol Hill and regular donor to both Republican and Democrat campaigns). It would appear that when Bush said that he would 'make no distinction between terrorists and those who harbor them', the definition of a terrorist was rather loosely made up.

In the United States, one can easily purchase a gun. For example, one can just walk into Walmart (recently proclaimed by Fortune 500 as the biggest company in the world) with an I.D., a bank check and a phone bill and voila! You’re ready for the next killing spree. In the United Kingdom however, handguns have been banned since 1997.

The difference between the two countries? Less than 200 firearm-related deaths a year in the UK, compared to the approx 30 000 of the United States (which has roughly 5x the population of the UK).

Some think that this was just bad luck, with the university students being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Which means that we probably should start avoiding any institutions of tertiary education. And some say that things would’ve been better if other students had guns to protect themselves (err...). The Republicans are not saying anything as they’ve persistently voted against more gun control and the Democrats aren’t saying anything either ‘cause the last time someone (Al Gore) spoke out against the widespread availability of guns, he lost the rural American vote.

Funny thing is, the US isn’t the only country which has widespread availability of guns. But the gun-related deaths are higher than most developed countries. And when you look at the gung-ho attitude of the administration, the shoot-first, ask-questions-later, we-can’t-do-no-wrong attitude; you have to then start looking deeper into the mindset of a niche population that is alienated and fed on a diet of super-sized media hyperbole.

The way I see it, one of two things need to happen – you either lock up the psychos and would-be-evildoers (which is kinda difficult since telepathy isn’t an exact science) or you restrict access to dangerous materials. If they believe it works with drugs, then why shouldn’t it work with guns? But will it happen? Nah…

And they keep on wondering why these things happen to them.