Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Decimation – Will it ever stop without stricter gun control laws?

The carnage of 32 innocent victims, on Virginia Tech campus, on Monday, April 16, has left people feeling distraught and vulnerable. Everyone has disparate ideas, conjecture, and interpretations of the deplorable act. Teenagers and parents are skeptical whether the campus is an inviolable sanctuary anymore. Can you blame them?

Most people I spoke with seemed to be astounded with the ethnicity of the killer. “I didn’t think an Asian kid would ever do this. It’s not in their culture”. Another went on to say, “I heard the ratio of Japanese young adults committing suicide, is very high. Maybe it’s that factor.” Newsflash: The killer was of South Korean descent, and not Japanese. Let us not dwell on stereotypes and racism when the issue is more deep-rooted than that.

This might sound like harangue, but here is what I surmise: The root of the problem is ‘lack of stricter gun regulations’ in America. A teenager or someone in his or her early twenties does not have the maturity to channelize acrimony or disgruntlement. At that tender age, you are inept at differentiating between right or wrong. When you snap, you get consumed in the moment, and that is when calamity strikes – Cho Seung-Hui’s are born.

Has the government not learnt anything from the Columbine annihilation in Colorado? It always boils down to the dispute between gun control vs. gun rights. Will the death rates go down if we had stricter regulations? Well, here is food for your thought: Amongst all industrialized nations, United States has the highest number of gun-related deaths. Being a world leader in this category is appalling and disconcerting!

I am attaching a link to an article in The Economist. http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9028115

Copyright © 04.18.2007

“The Americans are certainly great hero-worshipers, and always take their heroes from the criminal classes” - Oscar Wilde

4 comments:

Curious said...

Can't agree more with you. Even common people like my van driver feels the same.I will be amazed if the government doesn't feel to impose stricter norms.

opinionated said...

i totally agree... gun control should be imposed.. strictly imposed.. the ease with which guns are available for anybody and everybody is the root cause for a number of fatalities across the U.S. I don't see any positive (and a whole lot of negatives) by allowing guns to be so freely available.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you. after looking at the killer's pictures with guns in his hands i am more and more convinced that laws should be stricter.

Anonymous said...

The debate oin"whether or not the Arms` related laws ne be stricter" is really apt.But qually important is a ebte on"whether the socity is aping celluloid or it is the other way". For most of the group crimes,we can find a simli in one film or the other.