War with and Without Guns

The horrific news of 17 children and adults being shot has drawn together some incredibly motivated and articulate people. Thousands of miles away, I wake daily to the news of the growing momentum in these campaigns for and against firearms.

Today, two interesting statements were released.

Survivors of the shooting were at a televised meeting with the US President. A young man recalled the steps taken by the Australian Government following their school shooting incident in 1999. He pointed out that since restricting access to firearms in Australia there had been “zero” school shooting incidents.

The other statement was from the President suggesting a possible solution is that teachers be armed.

Arm teachers.

Incredibly, the solution to reducing gun crime is to increase the number of people carrying guns. The logic in this proposal is … well I could not find it, I must confess.

Gun crime is not an issue in the UK mainly because hardly anyone is legally allowed to own one. I could not find figures for 2017 but previous years numbered deaths by firearms in the tens.

Death by guns is a very unusual way to die.

There are lots of sources for the USA, however. In the year 2017, there were 15,593 homicides where a firearm was used. This year to date, 2,114 people have been murdered with a firearm. Not even two months have passed.

Cure the problem by adding more of the illness.

What the UK does have a problem with is an increase in knife crime. It is, at the moment, illegal to carry on your person anything that can be deemed as an “offensive weapon.” Anyone caught carrying one when searched by the police faces prosecution.

To date, nobody has suggested that we combat the rise in knife crime by allowing more people to carry knives. I have heard some suggest that there are some people who carry knives for their own protection against other people carrying knives.

A logical argument? No more than protecting against those bearing firearms by carrying a firearm themselves. The possibilities of injury and death increase with the increase of weapons in the population.

And the trauma suffered after a life is taken is not explored at all. I am talking now about the taking of another's life. If one was to use a knife to defend against someone threatening with a knife, there is a strong probability that the only resolution is to kill the offender with the blade. That is not easy to do without training and would not be an incident ever forgotten.

The same is true of using a firearm for defence. In spite of the portrayal of such events in films, few soldiers and police using firearms to resolve incidents walk away without some degree of mental trauma.

Arming teachers is a strange suggestion because use of the firearm on a young person would cause the type of body trauma that would sicken most teachers I would hope.

Most of my teachers had enough to deal with from the daily pressure of dealing with juvenile behaviour. Adding the trauma of causing death would not be welcomed I am sure.

The real issue - why do they do it?

Surely the real issue is with the individual who arrives at the decision that they need to buy a gun, walk into a public place, and shoot people. This is not a decision made by someone in a healthy state of mind.

Reducing firearms and weapons in general is the way to go but what can be done to restore a mind that is bent on killing? Can we work more on teaching our citizens how to find and maintain a balanced mind? Can we promote the benefits of respecting ourselves and those around us?

I abhor what Nikolas Cruz did, but was any intervention possible in his life to have changed the direction he was heading in his mind? He is 19 years old and not only ruined his adult life just as it was beginning but also stopped the lives of 17 people. Not to mention the grief of countless others.

It is this author’s hope that the present movement to reform gun control in America continues, gains support, and makes the country a safer place to live.