a gun never killed anyone
Don’t you just love the standard National Rifle Association’s (NRA) response to anyone calling for a change in America’s gun law and the associated reiteration of the constitution’s right for an individual citizen to bear arms.
The recent shooting in Tucson, Arizona – surprisingly the first assassination attempt on a US politician in over 30 years – has sparked a bitter row over the contributory role of violent right-wing rhetoric. Moderate critics and commentators have blamed the Tea Party movement and, in particular, Sarah Palin’s campaign literature in which target seats, including the injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’, were marked with rifle crosshairs. Personally, I think that’s a bit rich but I am glad to see that it effectively puts an end to the presidential hopes she obviously harboured. No, the irony is they’ve all been at it. Obama spiced up a crowd in 2008 with ‘if they bring a knife to a fight, we bring a gun.’ Other inflammatory remarks have included that voters should be ‘armed and dangerous’ and ready to ‘shoot a fully-loaded M16’ to remove the opposition. A further irony is that Giffords owns a gun and her first act in Congress was to push for a national day in recognition of the cowboy! Yeehaw.
OK, a gun never killed anyone and sure, it was the idiot pulling the trigger but aren’t they missing the point here? The true scandal is not the combative rhetoric, it’s the proliferation of the gun and the ease of access to anyone with a mind to get hold of one. The fact that the assailant, Jared Loughner, an individual with a long history of disturbing behaviour was able to walk into a shop and buy a Glock semi-automatic handgun, with no questions asked, is the real shocker. Had Loughner turned up with a knife or some such weapon, the likelihood is that Giffords would still have been injured, perhaps fatally, but I doubt there would have been 19 other casualties with six fatalities. Surely America can find a way of appeasing those who wish to ‘bear arms’ with some form of sane acceptance of what the issue really is about. The issue is the gun and we have to get them off the streets and out of the hands of Joe Public.
NB In a bizarre turn of events it does appear that earlier today (several days after posting the full article) a gun has apparently taken the law into its own hands and attempted to murder two young students. A 15 year old student at Gardenia High School in Los Angeles brought a gun into school and it was automatically discharged as his slammed his backpack down on his desk. The bullet critically wounded the two students, one in the neck and the other in the head, so it’s now official, a gun did in fact nearly kill someone of its own volition. Maybe someone in power may see the irony in this and act for the good on the nationa as a whole? Nah, thought not.
