A MINUTE'S SILENCE, AND COUNTING

With all due respect to Megan McArdle, this is exactly the right time for "gun controllers" to come "crawling out of the woodwork".  Frankly, I've been stunned at the way so many American politicians and commentators have ducked the question since the VT shootings. The Economist, for one, has noticed how quiet it is out there: Only two [presidential] candidates said anything about guns, and that was to support the right to have them."  How sad is that? The rest of the piece is a must-read:

Cho Seung-hui does not stand for America's students, any more than Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did when they slaughtered 13 of their fellow high-school students at Columbine in 1999. Such disturbed people exist in every society. The difference, as everyone knows but no one in authority was saying this week, is that in America such individuals have easy access to weapons of terrible destructive power. Cho killed his victims with two guns, one of them a Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a rapid-fire weapon that is available only to police in virtually every other country, but which can legally be bought over the counter in thousands of gun-shops in America.

As I've already said, I don't have too much of a problem with what you could call "traditional" gun culture. Alex Massie, who has just started his own blog - and very readable it is, too - describes that side of life very well:

No attempt to understand  why America, alone of western countries, remains an armed society can  hope to be successful without appreciating the historical - and  constitutional - place the gun has played in its history. Wishing it otherwise is not enough to wish it away.

That culture still thrives. Three summers ago, I attended what proudly billed itself as "America's Largest Machine Gun Shoot and  Military Gun Show" in rural Kentucky. Guns from all over the world were on sale, while patrons could rent .50 calibre machine guns to blast away at wrecked cars, buses and boats. Time after time, I was asked if there was anything like this in Scotland. "No, not really", I would say, mustering as much understatement as seemed sensible. "You could see how people could twist this into something it's not," one sub-machine gun wielding man told me. "But," he insisted, "these people are just average Joes having fun."  And for the most part, he was right.

Point taken. But there's still room for a grown-up debate, isn't there?

Comments

[sonia]

I find it amazing that you can buy guns but you can't buy weed, or even rolling papers unless it's at a dodgy garage or a tobacconist.
'average joe's having fun'? 'now we couldn't have people going round doing that could we?

[Mike Doughty]

True or not?

"AS FOR THE European disdain for our criminal culture, many of those countries should not spend too much time congratulating themselves. In 2000, the rate at which people were robbed or assaulted was higher in England, Scotland, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Sweden than it was in the United States. The assault rate in England was twice that in the United States. In the decade since England banned all private possession of handguns, the BBC reported that the number of gun crimes has gone up sharply.

Some of the worst examples of mass gun violence have also occurred in Europe. In recent years, 17 students and teachers were killed by a shooter in one incident at a German public school; 14 legislators were shot to death in Switzerland, and eight city council members were shot to death near Paris.

The main lesson that should emerge from the Virginia Tech killings is that we need to work harder to identify and cope with dangerously unstable personalities.

It is a problem for Europeans as well as Americans, one for which there are no easy solutions — such as passing more gun control laws."

It seems that most Europeans think that "the authorities" will protect them, while most Americans think they can do at least as well protecting themselves. It's about who has control; keep it yourself or give it to someone else. This is a basic difference in the cultures and has been since 1776. Perhaps the Europeans who think like this are all here in the US now?

[Duke]

Without a doubt if every gun in the world disappeared overnight the slaughter at VaTech could not have happened.

The gun control maniacs seem to think that banning guns removes them from society. The gun nuts want a machine gun in every car to be OK.

This debate ain't a debate, it's a pissing contest. What we need to ban is insanity, it's just as possible as banning guns.

[jameshigham]

Think the jury is still out on this one, Clive. And why did guns play a part there but not, say, in Australia or in the Yukon?

[rich]

Not having guns is so morally superior.

Resistance is so futile.

Without gun you can sacrifice yourself to criminals who do have guns (legally or illegally.)

Or you can defend yourself as this member of the "Greatest Generation" recently did while balancing on her walker!

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/20/armed_miss_america_1944_stops_intruder/

[Stosh2]

If you are honestly stunned at the restrained reaction in America to the VA Tech shooting I suggest you study more deeply contemporary politics & culture and history of the US before commenting further on this topic.

Also, If you want a true "grown up" discussion of the topic, you may wish to drop the sneeringly adolescent Euro-term "gun culture" to describe a civil liberty that Americans possess amd Euros do not.

YOU must grow up before there can be an adult discussion.

[Anna]

The term 'gun culture' was used as early as 1970 by the American historian Richard Hofstadter in his piece for the journal American Heritage, which was entitled 'America as a Gun Culture'. There is an article by Michael Lenz at http://www.ghi-dc.org/bulletinS05/36.81.pdf where he briefly talks about it. Many authors agree that it can be a very misleading term because it is largely undefined and carries negative connotations.

Also, I agree with sonia that having guns should be balanced out with having weed.