Blog #5
Usually, major events like the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona and the infamous University shootings, due lead to the reform of gun laws in different countries. Let’s start in Australia, when in 1996 a lone gunman armed with a high-powered rifle entered the Port Arthur historic site in Tasmania and began firing randomly. He shot tourists and set fire to buildings. The perpetrator, Martin Bryant, had killed 35 people.[1] This incident led to tougher gun laws in Australia where the Federal Government banned self-loading weapons and pump action shotguns.[2] In the UK, the killing of 14 people in Hungerford in 1987 brought up to light the effects of weak gun laws. [3] Again in 1996 in Dunblane, where 16 students and a teacher were gun down fueled the fight against weak gun laws. [4] These events also led the government to strike down on gun laws and ban certain weapons from the public.
Guesses are made in that gun crime will drop if guns are hidden from the public by virtue of strict gun laws. However, it doesn’t always work that way. Take for example, Germany where despite them having some of the harshest anti-gun laws, in the last decade they have had two scenes of mass murder. It makes me think, what are the relationships between the laws and the events? Gun rights defenders go to great lengths in the aftermaths of very gruesome events to point out that these shootings are the acts of mentally ill, or loners, or those who have a specific religious or political grudges.[5]
In all fairness however, there have been instances where the U.S. has put in place laws that strike down on guns. For example, in 1994 there was a ban for the manufacturing of certain assault weapons and high capacity magazines, however it expired in 2004. Only a few states remain with the provisions passed back in 1994. Despite the expiration of these bans, citizens, excluding some federal agents, still cannot buy fully automatic guns, short barreled shotguns, some rifles, and silencers. But typically if you are of Good Conduct with no criminal record and a sane mind, people can buy handguns. Despite what many think, this is a right, our 2nd Amendment right, which distinguishes the way the US is seen by other countries. We go across the pacific where Japan also has some very strict laws and have to prove for it that about 1 in every 2,000,000 people is killed by a gun, where in the US it was about 14 deaths for every 100,000 people. [6]
There are just so many examples that help either side of the argument of whether guns should or shouldn’t be harder to get. Yet again, I say that despite having all this data where it has been proven to work in other countries, no one country is alike, but more importantly not one culture is alike. We need to remember how this country was founded and how it was liberated. It was liberated through instilling fear with greed, and with the help of weapons that goal of liberation could be achieved. Is this culture ever going to change? Is the 2nd Amendment ever going to be amended or removed? I cannot answer that because I cannot see the future. If I could, I’d probably be rich by now. But if things are to ever change, the idea of having to live and die by the gun has to be abolished. Until then, if history tells us correct, the US might just continue to top the charts with the most deaths by guns.
[1]Website: Emergency management in Australia. “Historical Disasters – Port Arthur Massacre.” http://www.ema.gov.au/www/emaweb/emaweb.nsf/Page/EMALibrary_OnlineResource_HistoricalDisasters_HistoricalDisasters-PortArthurMassacre
[2]Website: Australia: A Massive Buyback of Low-Risk Guns http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/files.php/faculty/reuter/gun%20chapter.pdf
[3] Website: BBC. “1987: Gunman kills 14 in Hungerford Rampage. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/19/newsid_2534000/2534669.stm
[4] Website: BBC. 1996: Massacre in Dublane school gym. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/13/newsid_2543000/2543277.stm
[5] Website: The American Prospect. http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=weighing_the_consequences_of_political_rhetoric
[6] Website: Gun Deaths – United States Tops the Listhttp://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=6166
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