Disclaimer

The views, opinions, and observations expressed in this journal are my own and in no way reflect the views, opinions, or policy of the Peace Corps, Peace Corps Morocco, nor any other governmental or non-governmental organization.

Nor is anything written here necessarily drawn from my own views, opinions, and observations. Please consider all postings and pictures complete fabrications with absolutely no bearing on reality. For legal purposes, please additionally regard the author as utterly imaginary.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Tragedy in Connecticut

I learned about the shootings in Connecticut at the elementary school within 12 hours of them happening. It seems that, along with information, the internet can also carry emotions. The killing spree is incomprehensible to me. It took not only a mentally sick person, but a mentally sick person with a gun.  I believe the following:

What happened in Connecticut? 

Deranged person + guns. 

There have always been and there will always be mentally ill people. And there will never be a time when all mentally-ill people are accurately identified and successfully cared for. Simply put, there will always be that variable, whether you think it's caused by God or by evolution or by brutal chance, there will always be some sick peopl
e out there.

But our sick people occasionally brutally murder a lot of others. This doesn't happen so much outside of the US (recent terrorism in Norway being the exception that proves the rule). Our people kill others because they have guns.

The relevant moral factor in the gun deaths at the elementary school is guns, not mental health care. Yes, we can have better care, and we should have better mental health care. But the reason why this person was able to kill so many children is because he had guns. He couldn't have done it without them.

Without the guns, there wouldn't be so many dead children, both at the Connecticut school and in cities around the country. Americans made a moral choice to allow firearms to whoever wants them. That is the moral choice that led to these deaths as well as tens of thousands of others every year. If you support guns, you are complicit in these murders, accidents, and suicides.

It is highly unlikely Americans change this- more than half of Americans support the legalization of semi-automatic firearms. We are a people who, on average, place the fleeting adrenaline rush of shooting off pistols in a firing range over and above the lives of thousands and thousands and thousands of our fellow Americans. This is a moral choice that we made and it is the wrong one.

Proponents of 'gun rights' argue you need a gun to defend yourself. This is utterly non-sensical. There is absolutely no factual basis to the argument that more people with guns leads to increased deterrence of gun violence. Actually, it's the opposite.
Proponents of 'gun rights' argue that guns don't kill people, people kill people. This is also utterly stupid. Yes, people do kill other people and sometimes without using guns. But the man in China who stabbed 20 kids with a knife didn't kill any of them. The man with the gun in Connecticut killed all of them. It was the gun input that led to the deaths.
Proponents of 'gun rights' argue that it's a constitutional right. There is no constitutional right to a semi-automatic 100-clip gun. The amendment was written to support sheriffs who were usually armed with clubs, not with guns. The amendment has been twisted over the centuries into something it was never meant to be.

Why not follow some other countries on this one? We don't need guns. Fuck hunting.







When things like this happen, I feel bad for being over here in Morocco when there are so many problems back home that could use my support. I come from a violent country.  I am grateful that, so far, no Moroccan has asked me about the massacre, as I couldn't possibly explain what happened and the laws that made it possible. 

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Disclaimer

The views, opinions, and observations expressed in this journal are my own and in no way reflect the views, opinions, or policy of the Peace Corps, Peace Corps Morocco, governmental or non-governmental organizations.

Nor is anything written here necessarily my own views, opinions, or observations. Please consider all pictures and texts here to be complete fabrications with absolutely no bearing on reality, this one or any other. For legal purposes, please additionally consider the author to be utterly imaginary.