Virginia Tech
The recent massacre by a deranged student at Virginia Tech, has amazingly succeeded in further polarizing the United States - amazingly I saw because this should have been one incident that pulled people together across party lines, across spheres of belief.
However, as always the gun lobby has come out with their guns blazing claiming that this incident established the clear need for more guns, rather than less - Using the convoluted logic that if any of the murdered students had been armed, this tragedy could have been averted or atleast minimized.
And the gun control advocates viewed this as an "open and shut case" in favour of more stringent gun control. Surely it was important to have some sort of psychiatric evaluation of the buyer before handing over automatic weapons.
It is intensely scary to me that an AK-47 can be purchased online for $300 (Rs. 12,000) in the US with just three forms of ID (Which I possess). There are 70 million guns in the US.
A Britisher writing to Time magazine captured my feeling perfectly:
"While the world can sympathize with the bereaved in the Virginia Tech killings, there seems little point in the American people getting too upset about them. Such killings are merely a form of blood tax that has to be paid for the imagined privilege of owning guns"
'Nuff said
However, as always the gun lobby has come out with their guns blazing claiming that this incident established the clear need for more guns, rather than less - Using the convoluted logic that if any of the murdered students had been armed, this tragedy could have been averted or atleast minimized.
And the gun control advocates viewed this as an "open and shut case" in favour of more stringent gun control. Surely it was important to have some sort of psychiatric evaluation of the buyer before handing over automatic weapons.
It is intensely scary to me that an AK-47 can be purchased online for $300 (Rs. 12,000) in the US with just three forms of ID (Which I possess). There are 70 million guns in the US.
A Britisher writing to Time magazine captured my feeling perfectly:
"While the world can sympathize with the bereaved in the Virginia Tech killings, there seems little point in the American people getting too upset about them. Such killings are merely a form of blood tax that has to be paid for the imagined privilege of owning guns"
'Nuff said
Comments