Guns. Yep. Here we go again.
This year, a year which is only eight weeks old, has seen over 7500 instances of gun violence. As of the writing of this article, there have been over 1900 gun related deaths in 2016. Take a moment and let that sink in. How many of those 1900 deaths have you heard about this year? Why? Are we numb? Do we not think there’s a problem? Because, there is and it’s clearly a big one.
The NRA claims arming everyone is the solution to gun violence. If a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun, why are we beyond 7500 instances of gun violence already this year? Where are all these good guys and their guns?!
What does the US government do in response to such insane numbers of gun violence? Sue to hack into our phones. Here is an excellent read from James Allworth:
Do you know how a properly functioning society would react to an event like San Bernardino? I do — because I’ve had the misfortune of living through such an event. On the 28th of April, 1996, a gunman equipped with an AR-15 assault rifle — the same kind that the San Bernardino shooters used — opened fire in Port Arthur, in Australia. 35 people were killed and 23 were wounded. It remains one of the world’s deadliest shootings by a single person.
Within months, the country’s governing party led a bipartisan effort to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.
They didn’t do it by focusing on creating backdoors into phones.
The government has said gun deaths in this country are caused by terrorism. I’ll let Mr. Allworth take the lead again:
If you believe the Government’s case, then terrorism is the root of the problem here, and the real change that we need in our society is for the Government to have backdoors into our phones.
Let’s run the numbers on that:
It’s absurd.
The guns in San Bernardino that resulted in all those deaths were legally purchased weapons. And the big legal push the US Government has decided to make in response?
It’s decided to seek a precedent that would allow it to force every American company to create a backdoor for the Government to snoop on anyone it so pleases.
The logic is outrageous: “People got shot. So we need a backdoor into your phone.”
Mr. Allworth makes very interesting points. Is terrorism a problem? Absolutely. Is gun violence a problem? To those logical and rational people, most certainly.
The answer isn’t more guns. There are already enough guns in this country that each person could have their own. More guns just means more dead people. I liken the NRA’s push for more guns to the tobacco industry saying cigarettes have no negative health consequences. The NRA is attempting to mask a serious problem by suggesting a solution that makes them even more money. It’s disgusting. Loss of human life is a sacrifice the NRA and gun advocates are willing to accept. I can’t fathom why.
The solution to lung cancer is not more cigarettes. The solution to alcoholism is not more alcohol. So why would the solution to gun violence be more guns?
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