After 15 people were shot dead in and around a German school campus by a former student, it seems Germany feels no need for stricter gun laws. The country’s Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, stated “I can’t see how a change in weapons rules would contribute anything to solving the problem.”
Mr. Schaeuble, are you serious?
True, a combination of mental health problems and societal influences, among others, play a part in reasons behind most school shootings, and all factors should be addressed. However, it is hard to control mental health and society at large. Tim Kretschmer, the 17 year-old shooter who killed 15 before taking his own life, had a history of depression and failed to continuously attend his outpatient therapy sessions. No one had control over helping him, just as no one has control over forcing an individual to continuously take medication for their mental illness. There is no total control over mental health.
Additionally, though attempts have been made, and some ground gained, in protecting influential children against violence and sex in television, films and video games, there will never be strong enough protection. If a 13 year-old wants to play Resident Evil 4 (ranked the #1 most violent video game), the age restriction on its purchase will not stop him. A friend, older brother or even his parents will purchase it for him and within the first minutes of play, that impressionable mind will see the corpse of a woman pinned up on a wall by a pitchfork through her face. There is no total control over societal influences.
There is control over guns. With tighter gun CONTROL laws, access to these killing machines can be greatly restricted. It is naïve to think that stricter gun control laws will put an end to school shootings, but with nothing else to control, we must turn to legislation in hopes of one day getting through a school year shooting-free. Tighter gun control laws – it’s a no-brainer, people.
Emily Holbrook
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COMMENTS
I read the article by Emily Holbrook on gun control and find myself disagreeing with her. Tighter controls on guns only limits those law abiding citizens wanting guns. If someone is truly bent on destruction they will get access to a gun anyway they can and that means illegally. Gun control laws will not prevent this.
Walter Dixon, 3/16/09, 10:43 am
A while back, Israel had a lot of killings in their schools from terrorists. They responded by arming the teachers. It was amazing how quickly the shootings stopped. There are other solutions besides disarming law abiding citizens.
Dan Howard, ESI Waste, 3/17/09, 10:51 am
Dear Emly I don’t know if you ever lived in Germany or not. But I have and I can tell you first hand they have very tight gun control laws. I have never seen a gun kill without a human behind it. It takes someone to load it very time. With 20 you in the army and 3 1/2 in combat as a medic I have seen a lot. It not a issue of gun control but a issue of education, we say if we teach kids about drugs ,sex, sexual harassment and so it will stop it or slow it down. But when we say let teach kids about gun safety we here people scream “HOOOO NOOOOOOOO we can’t”. So tell me why it work’s for drugs, and sex and so on, but not for guns? Also tell me why it’s ok for in 2007 we had 34502 deaths on our roads with 1,794 under the age of 14 vs. 396 gun deaths for under the age of 14. We had 14,539 DWI related fatalities and 1.4 million arrested for DWI. But do not see a call law to stop people with DWI cant by a car. But we want more laws that stop people with no record of crimes to stop buying guns. We have over 20,000 gun laws on the books in the USA. We have vice cop, Norco cops, and traffic cops but gun cops. Every one of these deaths is a lost. Do not get me wrong I do not want to any loss of life. But I do believe we should look at thing from where we can do the greats good have the great’s impact for our money. So new laws are not what need here but enforcement and education of what we have.
James Graham, Premiere, Inc., 3/18/09, 9:23 am
If one assumes that under our Constitution, Americans have a basic right to own and possess firearms and other deadly weapons like autos, knives and baseball bats, how do you propose to further "control" guns without trampling on the Constitution? As we should all know, human behavior, in a free society, is essentially uncontrollable Additionally, life is not, and cannot be made to be, risk free. We are always going to have criminals and lunatics, who disregard "controls" to pursue their anti-social ends.
Gordon Amini, PLICO, 3/18/09, 3:45 pm |
