Guns, Guns, Guns...

I just discovered another murder-suicide incident, this time at NASA. Should we even be surprised that these shootings just keep happening?

From what I read on a blog, it appears that most Americans don't believe these types of shooting are directly caused by the lack of gun control laws in the country, even though the rest of the world disagrees. Below I share with you two pro-gun comments on the blog, which asked the question whether NRA was responsible for these shootings.

One person tried to compare the situation to high powered vehicles causing traffic accidents. This analogy is flawed. Cars, even ones with abnormally powerful engines, are built for transportation. No one drives around with the intention to cause fatalities. The same cannot be said of guns, because they are designed to kill or at least seriously injure another person. NASCAR may promote speeding that may cause fatal accidents, but an organisation that promotes possessing guns must necessarily endorse using them (or there is no point carrying a gun around), and the direct effect of using a gun is taking someone's life. This is not a side effect, as is the case with speeding.

Another claimed "Guns don't kill; people do". This is not an accurate statement. A person intent to kill, and there is a chance that this person actually kills someone. The "probability of success" depends on the methodology, and clearly using a gun increases that probability substantially. In short, guns themselves don't kill, but they sure make the killer's job a lot easier. Can anyone dispute that had the killer been armed with a baseball bat or even a katana, the death toll would be much lower?

Clearly the merely act of restricting gun possession will not totally eliminate such killing-sprees. The black market will ensure these who are desperate, and rich, enough will get their weapons. However, it will prevent every other angry kid from causally taking the family gun from an unlocked drawer and carrying out a massacre in the classroom.

What's ironic, as one reader submitted to the newspaper, is that Americans need the right to bear arms in order to protect themselves from other citizens who have the right to bear arms. (I can't get a direct quote since I threw away the paper!)