The right/wrong to bear arms?

It's wrong to bear arms

April 22, 2007 12:25pm

FOR two months, a couple of years ago, my family and I lived in Virginia in the US.

It was an outer suburb of Washington, really, but very much part of Virginia, the state whose gun laws allowed Cho Seung-Hui to buy a 9mm Glock handgun and kill 30 people at Virginia Tech.

Most weekdays and every weekend, my wife and I would go for long walks. And here's the thing: the Virginians we met were the friendliest in the world.

Not once did we walk without other walkers wishing us a nice day, a good morning, a pleasant stroll.

The paradox is that, undoubtedly, many of these kind people were gun owners.

It would be hard to find a non-American who loves America more than me. I admire its broad generosity, its voluptuous excesses, its high ideals and its immortal idealism.

But it is impossible to admire its gun culture.

The right to bear arms is enshrined in the US Constitution. The relevant provision of the Constitution actually seems to refer to the right of states to have armed forces, but it has been interpreted as meaning an individual's right to bear arms.

It is unrealistic to expect that Americans will ever give up this right. And it's not practical.

There are 300 million Americans and 250 million guns in private hands. Even if they were outlawed, you would never actually get them out of society's hands.

The most that can be hoped for is some more sensible regulation.........

There is a distinct gun culture emerging even in parts of Sydney and I suspect illegal gun ownership is far wider in Australia than we know.

Once guns penetrate a society you can't get rid of them and the international trade in illegal guns is enormous and booming.


Nonetheless, it is right that guns should be as illegal as possible in Australia so that we can retard, if not forever prevent, their spread throughout our society.

But even in America, gun control could make a much bigger contribution to reducing gun deaths.
In those situations, people deranged by anger, booze or drugs, or a combination, use anything that comes to hand - fists, a piece of furniture, sometimes a knife. If a gun is at hand it will be used.

Making it less likely that a gun will be at hand reduces the deadliness when a person lashes out.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DJ Ho Commentary

This is the 4 straight post i've done with a violence theme. Unfortunately this is the world we are living in right now. Where psychotic students gun down fellow students. Where arguments are resolved by staring down the barrel of a gun.

The profileration of guns in America is a ticking time bomb. Don't they ever do background checks on these people? Why is there a right to bear arms in America? It's a very simple formula: More guns = more deaths.


If there is a gun around, there is the potential for it to be used. Incidents like Virginia Tech show that there must be tighter gun control laws, not just in America but everywhere. People need to be educated about guns, and they need outlets for their frustration. Creative and non-violent outlets.

Students with a disconnect to the rest of the class, that are isolated and show mental issues need to be identified and helped at an earlier stage. Why don't they teach them conflict resolution classes? Didn't anyone ever reach out to the question mark kid? Who is selling them guns?

What a crazy world. Where 32 students can be gunned down by another student.

I'm out like gun control in the U.S,

DJ Ho.