COLUMN: Gun control not black and white
With a nation grieving over Monday’s horrific events at Virginia Tech and with the Trolley Square shooting still fresh in our minds, people will begin discussing gun control again. With finals quickly approaching, I thought I’d weigh in.
What would scare the neo-cons more than an armed Liberal populace? I know I am supposed to hate guns but really, I am a Utahcrat, so I’ve actually held and fired one. And while I dislike them and violent crimes that they have been used for, I also find an armed populace in the event that we need to overthrow despotism at home quite agreeable. And really, we are talking about constitutional rights here – liberals are all over that stuff. I don’t have to own one to defend your right to.
Guns are both a useful tool and a great (though arguably necessary) evil. I only hope that the patriots in National Rifle Association country will recognize the need if ever despotism were to rear its head. But gun control is a controversy that transcends political boundaries more than any other – some of my most liberal friends are opposed to stricter gun control and some of my more conservative or moderate friends hate them.
People on both sides of the issue have used and arguably misused tragedies like Columbine to buttress either a pro or anti-gun point. I mean, what would have happened Monday if one of those students was armed and fired? Would it have saved or cost more lives? I can’t really say for sure. Similarly I don’t think that inordinately restrictive gun control laws would prevent any significantly motivated and resourceful sociopath from finding the means to carry out the deed.
Believing that either more or fewer guns would have prevented this or similar events is na’ve; it’s a cosmetic solution to a deep-rooted problem. We live in a society of anti-depressants, fractured families, high incarceration rates, a widening gap between the rich and the poor and a struggling education system. What really happened is that someone killed these people – not some gun.
It’s easy to make rash conclusions when we have suffered a devastating loss. Our post-9/11 pain found us in two wars, one justified, one not. America cannot afford radical legislation either for or against gun control after a crisis like this. It is easy to become blind with fear and hurt. We must temper our decisions with reason and time as well as grief.
Making this issue about the guns is an insult to those who were injured and the memories of those who died. We should grieve, we should learn and we should work to reduce all violence, not just gun violence. Then we should turn our attention to other pressing matters. We should look beyond our borders to find a solution for violence. But why stop there? General crime, education, economic systems and even ecological strategies can provide insight too.
I have grown weary of all of the partisan bickering and the bumper sticker shouting matches on the topic. I am quite aware that people kill people. I am also quite aware that, as Eddie Izzard put it, the gun helps too.
Let’s just make sure that through it all we get our cultural priorities straight. How so? Well, our society is paradoxically both Victorian and violent – just look at our cinema: blood and gore at every turn but we get outraged over the occasional breast.
Class dismissed.