Sunday 16 December 2012

Connecticut School Tragedy

"Here today, gone tomorrow / We're only taking turns, holding this world / It's how its always been"
- The Fray, Trust Me
Shortly after I published my first blog post, tragedy struck an elementary school in Connecticut. By now we know that the lives of twenty innocent children were stolen, as well as six adults, in a senseless act of gun violence. The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, first shot and killed his mother at home before heading to Sandy Hook Elementary School to take more lives; "ending" the horror by taking his own.

Understandably, a call to action for stricter gun control laws in the United States is the first thought that comes to mind for many. As this has already been touched on pretty much everywhere you look that references this tragedy, I won't go into too much detail about why I agree. Rather, I'd like to touch on a conversation I had with someone about this.

After learning about the shooting, I expressed my views to this person about the importance of strict gun control in the U.S. Their response was, "The same thing could have happened if the guy walked in with a baseball bat." Um, what?

Let's evaluate this for a minute, shall we? Besides the fact that one has a greater chance of outrunning a crazed man with a baseball bat than outrunning a bullet headed straight for them, there are a lot of other significant differences between a psycho with a baseball bat and a psycho with a gun. 

For one, albeit possible to end a persons life with one hard hit from a baseball bat, chances are it'll take at least a little more than just the one hit. This leaves more time for the victim to defend themselves/fight back and for others to get help. Which brings me to another point; it's much easier to defend yourself against - and control - a person holding a bat than it is against a person with a gun (or in this case, multiple guns and a bulletproof vest).

Honestly, I'm not even sure why I'm going into details about this. The evidence is clear: guns kill.

People with mental health issues will always exist and, unfortunately, innocent people will cross their path and lives will be lost. But, when people like that don't have access to guns and they try to commit such a horrible crime, the body count at the end of the day will be much less. Less innocent lives lost!

I know in my previous post I said I'd try to cut the sappy stuff out, but seriously, if you have kids, hug them a little tighter today and never, ever take your loved ones for granted.


2 comments:

  1. Agree. After seeing Obama's reaction to the shooting, I hope he puts his foot down and creates stricter gun laws.

    Now excuse me while I play baseball with my baseball bat. What?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Americans worship thier guns. So like any religion, creating change would be a long, arduous process.

    ReplyDelete

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