In the video below, Al Jazeera‘s English-language correspondent suggests US shootings at hospital, nightclub raise questions on gun laws. Yes, well, I’m not seeing anything new in the “gun debate” sparked by these shootings. And neither are they. Which raises the question, what’s up with the headline? Another question . . .
Have Americans become inured to “gun violence”? In the main, I’d have to say yes. Yes we have. I also have to say that it’s a good thing, not a bad thing.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot we can, should and are doing to reduce firearms-related injuries and death; from suicide prevention to anti-gang initiatives, to repealing and not replacing gun control laws that make innocent Americans soft targets for killer criminals.
But our firearms freedom is an individual right. The injury and death toll is, dare I say it, an inevitable consequence of that right.
Tens of millions of Americans understand and approve of that trade-off. Many don’t, however, leading them to support either “restrictions on the other guy’s guns” or civilian civilian disarmament.
So the gun “debate” is, and hopefully always will be, an ideological stalemate. Which means that incidents of “gun violence” are largely ignored, or used as (at least equal) justification by the pro-gun side. What’s wrong with that?