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Matthew Hall presents a first-hand look at world events from a different angle. Follow @Matthew_HallThe right to bear arms
18 December 2012 | 7:44 | Source:
Just 24 hours later, there were 20 children dead, all of them shot multiple times with an automatic weapon by a gunman exercising his “right to bear arms”, the NRA’s very reason for being.
This is third time this year this column has addressed an incident involving mass deaths, all caused by sole gunmen armed with automatic weapons, in the United States.
In July, a gunman killed 12 people at a cinema in Colorado, using an AR-15 assault weapon. At that time, I wrote: “You may be detecting a theme”. Little did I know just how this theme would develop.
It’s tragic that it is possible to cut and paste what was written then for it is almost word-for-word so appropriate now. One point still strongly resonates. The NRA’s anti-control stance is built on an amendment to the US Constitution that interprets the call for an “organised militia” as a right to own assault weapons.
But, again, how many of the now-dead children from Newtown, Connecticut, should have died in support of that so-called right to bear arms?
How many people anywhere need to die to support that so-called right?
Give me a number. Which is more important? Those lives? Or that right?
The NRA has gone quiet since the shooting last Friday. At the time of writing, we’ve heard nothing from the organization that claims to be a leader on gun advocacy.
Perhaps, it’s awaiting the subsidence in emotional responses to the deaths of 20 small town kids and their teachers. Perhaps, the organisation and the backyard owners of assault weapons are thinking this will blow over and we can all go back to “normal”.
But it’s entirely possible that the 27 people, young and old, are the exact number needed to address an issue apparently too hard to deal with. There is a solid theme emerging from Connecticut that enough is enough and that American politicians, supported by the NRA, may not be able to resist change in laws any longer.
Here’s a list of some of those politicians, with the relatively small amounts of money they have received from the NRA during the last election, that allow the lobby group such influence in Washington.
President Obama was so visibly shaken by the Newtown event that he shed tears addressing the nation on Friday afternoon in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. By Sunday, he’d thought about what may lay ahead politically.
He smartly introduced the idea of addressing gun violence and gun laws head on and did so in a way that many will find difficult to argue with. It’s not about your right to own an assault weapon. This issue is about to be framed as “protecting children”. Tough to argue against.
But these massacres are not just about guns. They’re also about mental health. They’re also about the culture of violence. It’s also about a trail of dead.
I defy any person, or representative of any organisation, to read this long list of names of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School and not argue that something significant has to change. Lists like those cannot get longer.
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rights to do anything
the only rights anyone has are those given to them by the government of the day. As they are given, so they can be taken away. Governments make their decisions, of course, based upon how voters might perceive the decision. Nonetheless, it is government who decides what ordinary citizens can and cannot do. So lets forget about rights to do anything. As it has always been , we will do as we are told.
NRA bashing unwise
To make the NRA the problem focus is unwise because it is only part of the problem. The solution is found in the answer to the question: What makes violence towards a fellow human being acceptable? The glorification of violence on T.V., in games, in news, use of langage, prose, film, etc. has an impact on our behavior; the nexus has not been explored with an open, that is non-commercial, mind. The NRA provides a simplistic answer for fear, we must find a lasting answer.
Clear choice
It seems there is a clear choice in the US. Either more guns is the answer, or tighter controls. The position that if enough good people are armed then the bad guys could be stopped instantly has an element of truth to it, but is the US really ready to embrace a "wild west" existence? Right to bear arms has NEVER meant right to be armed to the teeth with weapons designed purely for the efficient taking of human life. Not hunting, not sport, WAR. BALANCE is required. And controlls.
mr
Obama did not shed tears, i watched him. Newtown police on the day said that only the two pistols had been used and not the rifle which was in the car. Next day they reversed themselves. They know as well as anyone 9mm shell casings from .223 shell casings. Countermanded ? Medical Examiner Carver said that a long weapon had been used using bullets designed to cause maximum destruction of bone and soft tissue, which just happens to be true of standard .223 ammunition, not 9mm. Countermanded ?
THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
Those 27 dead paid the price for us in the United States to live free. The right to bear arms is a symbol of our freedom and is synonymous with democracy. More innocent people will die to protect the American way, How dare you Australians question our right to bear arms and kill in self-defense if we have to. Australia would be Japanese if we did not bear arms to defend you. God bless America!
Sure it has to change.
These criminals always go shooting in a gun-free zone, never a Police station, an Army barraks, a gun club or gun shop... Do you see this theme? If the teachers were armed, as they are in Israel after their rash of school shootings, this would not have happened. You will NEVER get the guns off the criminals, just look at Sydney in this country of super-strict laws. If banning guns made the country safe why does Julia have armed escorts?
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