Tu from Vietnam
Dear America,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting
That's it! I wasn't sure what exactly I should write on this blog until now, after reading the article about the "shooting in Virginia Tech". 33 death, with 27-29 wounded. How do you explain that?
Somebody have told me that Gun control is not the ultimate solution for this school/random shooting in America, but education does. Haven't American been educating their people to love, to respect nature, that war is negative, and that shooting people is bad and illegal? And yet these kind of issues still continue to happen, and they get worse and worse by time.
"Until Monday [prior to the Virginia Tech school shooting], the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.
Previously, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police."
These are fact! And I say that even though gun control might not be the ultimate solution, but I believe it is our temporary solution that need to be implemented to solve this problem, to reduce the risk for innocent people, and to give American more feeling of safety.
Anybody oppose?
About the Author:
Name: Tu
Age: 24
Country: Vietnam
City: Ho Chi Minh
Gender: Female
Occupation: Accountant/Finance
Experience With US: Have lived in the United States
13 Comments
Published on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 9:46 PM. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting
That's it! I wasn't sure what exactly I should write on this blog until now, after reading the article about the "shooting in Virginia Tech". 33 death, with 27-29 wounded. How do you explain that?
Somebody have told me that Gun control is not the ultimate solution for this school/random shooting in America, but education does. Haven't American been educating their people to love, to respect nature, that war is negative, and that shooting people is bad and illegal? And yet these kind of issues still continue to happen, and they get worse and worse by time.
"Until Monday [prior to the Virginia Tech school shooting], the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.
Previously, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police."
These are fact! And I say that even though gun control might not be the ultimate solution, but I believe it is our temporary solution that need to be implemented to solve this problem, to reduce the risk for innocent people, and to give American more feeling of safety.
Anybody oppose?
About the Author:
Name: Tu
Age: 24
Country: Vietnam
City: Ho Chi Minh
Gender: Female
Occupation: Accountant/Finance
Experience With US: Have lived in the United States
Labels: accountant, asia, crime, domestic policy, female, gun control, has lived in the US, vietnam
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America has not done a good job educating its people "to love, to respect nature, that war is negative, and that shooting people is bad and illegal." Just look at our movies, TV shows, music, news, and foreign policy. I believe tragedies such as this one are, to a large degree, a product of our culture. A culture that sensationalizes guns and violence (video games, Hollywood films), tolerates racism and hatred (Don Imus, Pat Robertson, rappers), and detaches us from the victims and horrors of these real acts of violence (how often do you see in-depth coverage of the war victims and the hundreds of other murders that happen every week). Perhaps this tragedy will serve to remind us that a society obsessed with that kind of stuff is just giving these wackos like today's more crazy ideas.
That is why I believe tighter gun controls will only go so far in preventing these types of events. What we need is a change in mindset.
I agree, but it is still better to have tighter gun controls rather than doing nothing, and watch more school shooting on the news, as we wait for the whole culture to change.
What I'm saying is this is one of the first step we need to take. Ee can't afford anymore waiting for a "loveful community" that will come in 20-30 years as American educate its people.
I haven't decided for sure where I stand on this issue. But, I thought I would present another side. Strict gun control will effectively prevent law abiding citizens from having guns. But, it won't really effect the bad guys. Evil people are not afraid to deal with other bad guys. There's no practical way to confiscate ALL the guns in America. There will always be a black market in illegal gun sales. So, anyone who wants a gun bad enough will be able to get one.
All the mass murders you cited occurred in "gun free" areas. Guns were not allowed in any of those places. Therefore, there was no deterrent for the killers. This is an important point. The shooters knew they could kill a lot of people unopposed before the police arrived and killed them, or they decided to kill themselves first. I heard a woman speak today in favor of making it easier for law abiding citizens to carry a concealed gun. She watched both her parents get murdered in that cafe in Texas. She said some of the customers had legal guns outside in their vehicles, but they didn't have permits to carry the weapons with them into the cafe, so they were defenseless. On the other hand, if the killer knew it was likely that some of the patrons would have guns, it may have been a deterrent to his plan. Even if it didn't deter him from attacking, he would have been shot before he could have killed so many people. In other words, if people in the cafe had guns with them, it would have saved several lives. This woman said if she'd had a gun with her, her parents wouldn't have died.
Since it's impossible to prevent the criminals and crazies from obtaining guns, I tend to think our best defense is to be equipped to either deter them, or to stop them at the beginning of their attack. Maybe Taser guns will eventually take the place of deadly force guns among the public. I certainly don't want to kill anyone, even in self defense. But, I would want to stop (immobilize and disarm) someone who was shooting at people.
It just came out that the killer was able to purchase the guns he used in the massacres despite the fact that he had been diagnosed with a mental illness! It is ludicrous that in the United States, it is easier to obtain a gun than it is to obtain prescription medication. At least the latter requires a doctor's prescription and verification by the pharmacist. In Virginia, it only takes 15 mins to walk into a gun store, get an instant "background check", and walk out with a brand new set of guns. We are the only developed country with such absurd gun laws. The NRA has gotten waaaaaay to much influence in the US...
What if everyone had guns? Then they could have shot him right away. No?
The best we can do is enact policies that will reduce the death toll when these acts of carnage occur, as they are likely to happen in a free and open society of 300 million people.
Only one policy has ever been shown to deter mass murder: concealed-carry laws. In a comprehensive study of all public, multiple-shooting incidents in America between 1977 and 1999, the economists John Lott and Bill Landes found that concealed-carry laws were the only laws that had any beneficial effect.
And the effect was not insignificant. States that allowed citizens to carry concealed handguns reduced multiple-shooting attacks by 60 percent and reduced the death and injury from these attacks by nearly 80 percent.
Apparently, even crazy people prefer targets that can't shoot back. The reason schools are consistently popular targets for mass murderers is precisely because of all the "Gun-Free School Zone" laws.
Tu,
You can't stop crazy people from doing evil things. When you give people freedom, including the right to bear arms, some people will use that freedom badly.
However, you might want to know that more people are struck dead by lightning in America than are shot dead in classrooms. It's a rare thing, which is why it makes the news. I don't know anybody who has been shot in school, or even seriously injured in any way. America is a big country of 300 million people. Anything bad you are looking for you will probably find. Anything good you look for you can find also. The good things are easier to find than the bad things.
Really! What's wrong with America?!
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/15/baby.gun.ap/index.html
A 10-month old (2 feet, 3 inches) weight (20 pounds)can get a gun permit! Who knows what he's gonna do when he knows how to use it! Or not even him, his friends might come over and steal his gun!
This is so wrong. There's no excuse for this!
Tantor,
No offense! But you're saying like if there are people die because of lightening more than people die because of school shooting, we should just worry about the lightening and forget the fact that we can do many (practical, realistic, and managable) things to prevent the school shooting?!
And for those who believe that guns in the good hands can protect the people from the bad, let me tell you this: there's no guarranty that the bad will not steal the gun from you and shoot you back.
Stop dreaming that you can shoot a shooter before he shoot you. Do something else to make him not having the gun instead of having the gun for him to steal.
I can't believe American still support Gun control after these incidents. And you claim yourselves as Peace-keeper of the world?! That's ridiculous.
Tu,
We have the second ammendment to guarantee the right of the people to defend themselves against a tyrannical government. For example, when Ho Chi Minh ordered the assassination of 37,000 mayors, teachers, and officials in South Vietnam to install a tyrannical Communist government. While we have occassional school shootings by crazy people, which are more rare than lightning strikes, we guard against the government arbitrarily murdering people by the tens of thousands, like Vietnam did.
We see the people as the rightful center of power. If the state has all the guns, we could end up like Vietnam, where the state has all the rights while the citizens have none.
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tu,
Hitler claimed to have the best gun control policy in the world, no guns on the street. I think we all know how that story ended.
Fortunately the second amendment protects us from people like you that would see to it that no one owned guns except the government. This is a silly concept and any hope that it will lead to a more peaceful way of life need look no further than Germany and its trials with strict gun control,
Dear Tu,
It is truly sad when some armed person for whatever reason(s) decides to take the lives of others with no rhyme or reason. It is even more sad to think that the majority of these people fell victim to such acts because they somehow felt that their government would be able to keep them safe at all times.
The wise men who brought America into exsistance knew that it could never be possible to provide for the safety of each citizen, So they made the guarantee that every citizen would have the freedom to defend themselves. This is the guarantee of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. So important was this right to self-defense that it is the Second, second only to Freedom of Speech. The saying here in the States "The Second Amendment, guaratees us the right to enjoy the others".
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The constitutions of our states [and of the United States] assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed".
Benjamin Franklin wrote, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain little temporary safety do not deserve and shall have neither Liberty or Safety.
As more and more Americans lay down their right to lawfully protect themselves, more and more of them become victims.
The U.S. does have in place a system to be used at the time of any lawful firearms purchase, the NICS(National Instant Check System)At the time of purchase the perspective buyer must fill out a questionaire, name, address, social security number, date of birth, and a list of questions regarding drug use, mental history, criminal record etc. the seller must submit the completed form to the NICS and await approval before the sale is allowable. Each sale is documented and filed. The problem isn't guns the problem is people. And more so the problem may be that so many people unwilling to defend themselves. When you know that there is evil in the world around you and you venture out unprepared you prepare your self as a victim.
This is the sad truth.
In regards to "the Gun", George Washington wrote,"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference, They deserve a place of honor with all that's good.
Tu, It is my most sincere wish that you nor anyone else in this world ever find yourself in need of a gun for protection, but, even more sincerely that should you ever need one, that you don't find yourself without it. Best wishes for your future.
From William, in America.