It begun in a home in Newtown, Connecticut and certainly didn't end there. 20 year old Adam Lanza was a honor roll student in high school who preferred to associate with "goths". He was described as "remote" with a possible personality disorder. He grew up in a wealthy neighborhood with a brother four years his senior and parents who divorced four years prior. On Friday morning, Adam woke up and killed his mother, Nancy, in her home and then got into a car and drove away. In that car he carried with him two pistols, a Glock and a Sig Sauer, .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, a Henry repeating rifle, an Enfield assault rifle and a shotgun. He drove to Sandy Hook School, got past a single security door somehow and opened fire. The school had children no further past the fourth grade. He left 28 dead, including himself, the school principal and his mother. Also killed were 20 children, none older than 10 years, resulting in the second deadliest shooting in U.S. history.
Gun control is now the hot button topic across the country. Three of the weapons that the killer brought into the school were registered to his mother, which he used to murder her with. The question echos, "If we had stricter gun laws, would this have happened?". Many seem to be focusing on the guns that were used to do the killing. I would rather look at the person using the guns to do the killings with. There should be no surprise that a gun was the tool used in the slaying of 20 children. Guns are the instruments of death. There's the old adage that I believe is important to consider here:
"Guns don't kill people, people kill people"
The purpose of a gun is to kill. That is the definition of a gun's entire existence. As long as guns are apart of our society, they will be used to kill people. Look at why guns were invented in the first place. Gunpowder was used by the Chinese in warfare before it spread to the west. Cannons were adopted from Chinese siege technology which caught on to Western war practices by the 14th century. Then, hand canons evolved to out duel the development of armor, and so on from there. Guns were made to fight man in times of war - but have since been abused to attain individual power when removed from war. That is what humans have proven to do time and time again; take advantage of technology's initial purposes. Take the internet, for example. The internet was first created to exchange information between computer terminals that were geographically separated and as a military defense system in the 1950's. Since then, the internet has evolved and been used to attack other users in the form of viruses, spyware and malware as well as widespread pirating. As long as we have guns there will be death, accidental or intentional. I don't place one above the other, both are saddening and indicative of the state in which we live. Gun control is not an option, it's an all or nothing scenario. Either banish all guns and eliminate the ease of access to killing others, or don't and accept that tragedies will occur.
Events such as the massacre in the Sandy Hook School, always hit me on a personal level. As a certified teacher, I have a first hand account of the concentration that is put into preparing teachers for events like this. It's now apart of the job description, knowing how to respond to threats such as school shootings. I've heard a lot of talk from people who believe that teachers should be allowed to have a conceal and carry permit in order to prevent situations such as this. Realistically, this would take a complete over-hauling of teaching personnel as I assure you that a vast majority of current teachers would seek a different profession if gun-toting was mandated policy. My mother is a teacher, and she thinks it is crazy to equip teachers with guns. Not only just because teachers are not trained soldiers, but because of the amount of accidents that would happen if they were. Teaching is a stressful enough profession with all its responsibilities, without including guns into the requisite. What about the potential for teachers to do harm to others? And then adding guns?
Who wants to be instructed by people carrying guns? It's already slightly uncomfortable just talking to police officers, let alone being told what to do by them. They have guns; I don't feel "safer" around them. Others will likely have a different perspective, but those who are young and black and living in America might share my view. And what of the times when tragedy hasn't struck? What of the times when a teacher sets the gun down, or puts it away, and it is found by a student? That student plays with the gun, and accidentally kills another student. Or a teacher. Or a parent. There are too many variables out there for this to be a viable solution.
The truth is depressing, but simple. There is no way to prevent tragedies like this from happening. While it is just heart-breaking that 20 children are murdered, I think it's just as sad that someone has reached the breaking point to where they decide to end lives, but a teacher was there to take them out before they did. What's happening to our young adults in America? What's happening to our teenagers? Why aren't we looking into making major changes to our societal construct? We shouldn't be surprised that guns will kill another, but we should be surprised that people are so willing to kill other people. Or are we at the point in which we just accept that humans have murderous tendencies and we need to limit the ways in which we can harm each other? If this is true, then how long after guns are banished before another method is invented to easily kill others? Or before the increase in an already available method such as domestic suicide bombings skyrocket?
We are our own worse enemy. As a nation, we would prefer to place the
blame on "terrorists" from foreign countries as the sole threat to American life. The fact of the matter is that domestic terrorism is killing Americans in far greater numbers than that
of international ones. More than 30 percent of female homicide victims are due to domestic violence. A NFL player recently used a gun to kill the mother of his child, and then killed himself over an argument over the paternity of a three month old child. The murders occurring in Chicago alone should be cause for a national emergency, as President Obama addressed in his press conference yesterday. We must take a hard look into what we have become as a society and the values we advocate. We are more isolated and alienated than ever before. We place unrealistic pressures on the youth to succeed, while glorifying gaudy and greedy behaviors of the rich and famous. Kids are growing up more disconnected than any generation ever before, contrary to the incredible amount of access to the world that they have. The culprit of our problems will not be found at Zero Dark Thirty, but rather right now. This very moment and in the homes of suburban east coast parents that keep registered guns in the house. In the malls of a North-western towns where many may not be able to afford to shop at. In the minds of professional athletes that may have a hard time checking their aggression at the practice gym as they leave. The signs are as clear as day. This is not a gun control issue; it's a state of American society issue.
