Guns – What Are They Good For
The
Wikipedia section on the history of guns makes it clear that the
history of guns and war are clearly intertwined, guns being developed
primarily as a means to kill people in warfare.
Indeed
even with the advent of weapons of mass destruction, the infamous
WMDs,
guns are still the weapon of choice in warfare. These guns are often being fired by the poor and disadvantaged against other poor
and disadvantaged in wars started by the wealthy and advantaged.
Hunting
People
have been hunting successfully without firearms for survival and
sport since man started eating meat. Nonetheless the use of hunting
rifles to kill game is a long established and accepted part of many
societies. But, no one needs a military assault rifle to hunt for
sport or survival. Spraying bullets at everything around hoping to
hit something or mowing down a whole herd in one push of a trigger is
not sport.
Sport Shooting
Shooting
as a sport is also a thing, from biathlon in the Olympics to target
shooting with handguns. No harm is done here as long as the guns are
safely stored at the shooting range.
Criminals and Police
Criminals
have discovered that guns can be a useful tool of their trade and the
police have responded. In some countries the police responded
cautiously with beat police and detectives remaining unarmed and
special armed response units established. Other countries decided to
start an arms race with the criminals, with ordinary police armed to
the teeth and and special (SWAT) units armed like military assault
units. We will leave it to your reading of current affairs to
determine which response resulted in more or less gun violence and
deaths.
Mass Murder
The
easy availability of military style assault weapons has made mass
murder a much easier undertaking than in the past. Internationally,
the numbers of incidents of mass murders compared to the availability
of such weapons speaks for itself.
Protection and
Vigilantism
While
some believe that they need guns to protect themselves and to deal
with criminals, most civilized societies believe that should be the
role of the police. There is a a belief, primarily in one country,
that an armed populace is a safe populace and the more people with
guns the safer a society is. Unfortunately the facts internationally
indicate the opposite, particularly when it comes to gun violence and
the deaths from it.
What Should We Do
So
what should Canada do about guns and gun violence. Fortunately we are
not saddled by a foolish Second Amendment but consider gun ownership
to be a carefully regulated privilege as most civilized countries do.
While
hunting rifles can be used in crimes, and no doubt are occasionally,
they are not the main problem.
The
big problem with gun violence lies with handguns and assault rifles
which no ordinary citizens have a need for. This is one situation
where there are simple and effective solutions. No one outside of the
military and certain special police units need assault rifles. They
should simply be prohibited. As for handguns, there is really no need
for civilians to have them either but since they can be easily
controlled for sport shooting purposes by restricting their use and
storage to approved shooting ranges they should be allowed with those
restrictions.
Government
simply needs to ignore the imported ideas of the American right wing
and provide the solutions the majority of Canadians agree with.
