Gun-Shooting, Firearms, and Fear
It takes an astronaut just returning from the Mars to not have learned the gun
-shooting massacre occurred in Virginia Tech University. Widely covered by the
media, the tragedy has recently become nearly everybody’s hot topic: A gunman
shot at the crowd in the university campus killing 32 people and then killed himself; Americans gathered to mourn the victims; and US President and state governors flocked to Virginia to give condolences. But this is the furthest point it
has so far reached -- There’s no news about American government tightening up gun-controls despite the recent spine-chilling massacre.
Shocking as it may be, many Chinese feel relieved at the news that the killer,
who allegedly was identified a Chinese, was not from them. “There wouldn’t have been such a terrible incident if guns were not so easily acquired, or at least were more strictly controlled”, say the people in this country where guns have been a stringent ban among its people. Having a long history of gun-loving,
Americans seem to have different views, though. When interviewed, A Virginia gun-lover said “if any of the professors present had carried a legal gun, they might have been able to stop the tragedy”. And Americans have a few politically
influential organizations and well-established laws to refer to when confronted
with the questions about their rights to own firearms. Second Amendment of the
US Constitution is one that is mentioned most often in such debates. A political sacred cow, America’s National Rifle Association is so strong and powerful that most people believe even the President and its party are held hostage by the
organization, which is said to have the final say in presidential elections. All together, these facts seem to suggest one thing, that is, the majority of the
American citizens will continue to cling to their rights to own private firearms
, and the lax control upon guns are not to be changed. An incident is an incident and all that, some may even say – guns in hand.
Not born in any one of the countries where guns and ammunition are an everyday
commodity, I sometimes have difficulty understanding the gun-obsession of the people on another side of the Pacific. And I can feel lucky here for people not
being able to buy guns when they get upset. What is the point that they so badly love the life-taking devices which are made only to kill? I know what they have to argue me back; they use guns to protect themselves. From whom, I say, and
what do you fear of such badly, and you really think with loaded guns in every
single hand you are safer?
It’s doubtful that the unprecedented campus gun-shooting incident on April 16
in Virginia Tech University will be an end to such tragedies, I hate to say. Whatever we do, we cannot bring the victims back, but we can at least hope that people are learning from their blind belief in firearms.
Panpanpan.
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