Not that Simple. Guns Don't kill, People(like Animals) Kill
When Guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns and when all law-abiding citizens are disarmed they shall be at the mercy of those that have guns whenever and wherever those gun owners choose to violate society's RIGHTS under the law.
LAW SIMPLY DOES NOT PREVENT ONE FROM BECOMING A VICTIM. Law is not some kind of magic shield that one can hold up to protect oneself even from a physical beating or mugging... Law is what "polite society" agrees to abide by; and what is used to prosecute those that break the law. Those that break the law are not part of "polite society" and don't give a damn about the Law or the consequences of breaking it.
Historically, governments can be as abusive of the governed as criminals are of their victims. That is why there have been revolutions where the people have had to defend themselves against their government oppressors and it's armies. This is true of the Revolutionary War that gave birth to undeniably, the greatest nation on the face of this planet: The United States of America...
Since the birth of this great nation, the people of the United States have been overwhelmingly active is assisting other countries, at their request or evidence of their dire straits, in their struggles for stability, peace and justice. The US has been charitably supporting the less-fortunate, has often pulled US allies' arses out of the fire.. and YES, when necessary, with the use of arms against their allies' attackers or oppressors who were also using arms to attack and oppress. Many of the beneficiaries of this assistance have forgotten or ignore the facts and consciously chose to ignore that their lives would be very different today had not the US aided in those countries' struggles of the past... And they criticize the US and look down their noses at its people, forgetting that the RIGHTS they have today that allow them to do so are in large part thanks to the aid received from their benefactor in time of their most desperate need...
In retrospect, I guess we should have held up a piece of paper with laws written on it and railed at the attackers or oppressors to ABIDE by the "International Law" and Protocols set forth therein. We would have been RIGHT to do so and RIGHT to expect the parties involved to all do what is RIGHT. The problem is not everyone knows what is RIGHT or has a differing opinion about what is RIGHT. It's subjective.
YES, we would have been DEAD RIGHT to do and to expect compliance, but we would have been DEAD all the same! Patrick Henry, a prominent figure in the American Revolution, is known and remembered for his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech. This phrase expresses the heart of our founding fathers...
And our founding fathers were great men, wise beyond their years and THEY made sure that the RIGHT to keep and bear arms was written into the BILL OF RIGHTS of the US Constitution so that future governments could not oppress the people of this nation without trepidation. They sought to ensure that individuals had the RIGHT and RESPONSIBILITY to protect home and hearth from nefarious forces bent on the destruction of this society.
Only the people of the US can allow themselves to be stripped of this RIGHT and that is not very likely to happen in light of historical events. The lesson lost on many is that, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And Americans of conscience will never allow this.
AS FOR THE DERANGED GUNMAN that took the lives of 33 members of "polite society" here in Virginia not 30 miles from where I live and work. His actions are not condoned by the law that guarantees the RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS, nor by any law, in fact, his actions are abhorred by all. And yet, LAW DID NOT PREVENT THE KILLINGS, because the gunman didn't care. GUNS are not to blame for his derangement or lack of respect for the law or his fellow man...
In his world, he was the judge, juror and executioner and he would have gone to any lengths to fulfill his heinous plan even had he not been able to obtain the guns used from the sources where he did obtained them. No one involved in selling the guns to him had any way, available to them at the time, of knowing the he was a mentally disturbed individual because it is not a crime to be mentally ill, and a criminal background check, checks for exactly that, criminal acts and records. I suppose that this will be the portion of law that will change to prevent anyone who has ever been mentally incapacitated from easily obtaining a firearm AND THAT IS GOOD... We already have guidelines in place that instruct sellers not to sell firearms to obviously disturbed or agitated individuals; but in his case he showed little to no emotion of any kind and the seller couldn't have known. HOWEVER; as with men of evil intent such as he, he very likely would have found another way to fulfill his plan, perhaps a homemade bomb; he had threatened the school anonymously, as we later found out, with bomb threats...
So, if you're looking to find who or what is to blame for this horrendous event, there are plenty of flaws in the system and in human society that failed to dissuade this individual from perpetrating this dastardly deed...
The school was warned by his teachers who witnessed disturbed attitude in his writing and by classmates who were stalked by him... so, IS THE SCHOOL AT FAULT?
The police had him in custody at one time for the stalking of two female classmates and ordered him to undergo psychiatric examination but he was never actually under arrest or charged with anything... The bomb threats could have lead the police to find him out, but the calls were unable to be traced back to him. Had any of these been recorded he would have not been able to obtain firearms from legal vendors or he would have already been in jail... so, ARE THE POLICE AT FAULT? ARE THE DOCTORS WHO EXAMINED HIM AT FAULT? IS THE PHONE COMPANY/SYSTEM AT FAULT?
What about Roommates who ignored the fragile psyche of their peer, not including him, not making him feel an integral part of their shared school experience, not demonstrating tangibly for him brotherly love, or the milk of human kindness that was so missing from his world view… so, ARE HIS ROOMMATES AND INDEED FORMER CLASSMATES AT FAULT?
Had other students been armed, would he have so easily overpowered them? This question has been raised as well. Shouldn’t more people/teachers/students be required to and taught to responsibly handle handguns and be allowed to carry them by permit? Faced with the possibility of being shot for taking another’s life, would that have acted as a deterrent to the gunman? The Rifle Club members on the VT campus have expressed this sentiment and stated that in the very least they would have not have felt so helpless. And had they encountered the gunman themselves they would not have let the rampage continue had they had their own weapon to defend themselves with.
We could attempt to second guess this situation with the benefit of 20/20 vision hindsight, and we may be able to prevent future incidents such as this, but overall the fault for this happening is the fault of every one of us, the fault of human society, chalk it up to human frailty and apathy toward the plight of our fellowman, even those whose physical proximity is closest to us. This gunman exemplifies the worst of human nature, the essence of evil that lies buried in the hearts of all men, yes all men. He, unlike members of "polite society", was unable to control these emotions and failures and had no real outside help to get or keep these under control, nor did he solicit any for he had no self worth.
He is not the first of his kind, and shall not be the last. He is just the WORST of his kind. The truth is: neither guns, nor their availability are to blame; the path this young man chose was his own, he had other paths to choose but did not. He shunned outside influences of any sort and isolated himself until he began to exist only within the paranoia that overwhelmed him and pushed him forward to his own destruction and the destruction of 33 others.
OPINION GRATIS,
Goh
but I did think that the NRA quoted the 2nd amendment, or part thereof not English Law.
