A Finnish man has recently shot and killed several people at a technical college where he was a student.
As usual the media and the usual left wing suspects have been jumping up and down in a joyous pant wetting frenzy as they can once again bleat that all guns should be banned.
Whenever I have tried to reason with them, they always proclaim “What about Columbine” as if it was some sort of magical incantation that would provide support to their idiotic beliefs.
OK, lets look at Columbine. Did you know that the two killers planted two 9kg bombs in the cafeteria that if they had gone of would have killed a great deal more than the 12 dead they managed to get with guns. Indeed, before the attack the killers had made a total of 99 bombs of which several were used.
As can be seen, the use of guns is merely a useful and convenient tool. Just like teenagers in London using knives to kill each other, the death count in London has recently reached 17 in one year. The tool doesn’t cause the crime, the crime is committed using the best tool that can be found.
These spree shootings have one thing in common.
- Most attackers had difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. Moreover, many had considered or attempted suicide.
- Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted or injured by others prior to the attack.
In other words they had trouble coping with society.
So what can be done.
Firstly, let ordinary decent members of society arm themselves and use guns to defend life and property. This lets people fight back against all criminals not just spree killers in society.
Secondly, have a libertarian society that leaves people alone. This will remove the hate for society that these sort of people experience. After all, they aren’t going to hate something that leaves them alone to get on with whatever they wish.
I am not being facetious when I say that spree killings are yet another of the failings of socialism. The state had corralled the two attackers into a 2000 student ‘factory unit’ and condoned the bullying that went on. It is no wonder that the two attackers reacted violently.
I must admit you lost me completely with the “guns are more convenient than bombs” argument. While I can see that in a flawed and violent society such as the USA, one might argue that people have the right to hold guns with which to protect person and property, However, I fail to see why one would need a sub-machine gun to do so. Secondly, this was not my understanding of the gun situationin Finland, where guns are typically common because of the love of hunting. Again, here, a sub-machine gun is not a requirement for hunting. Also, I hear no clamour in the UK for a law allowing us all to arm ourselves with either guns or knives to protect ourselves on the streets of London and other cities.
The truth is that without access to guns, Columbine and Finland would not have happened. So, yes, feel free to work on the causes of social deprivation and fear, but, social deprivation and fear are no excuses for arming ourselves.
You might find this thought provoking:
http://caughtinthemiddleman.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/stab-in-the-dark/
“”I must admit you lost me completely with the “guns are more convenient than bombs” argument. While I can see that in a flawed and violent society such as the USA, one might argue that people have the right to hold guns with which to protect person and property, However, I fail to see why one would need a sub-machine gun to do so. Secondly, this was not my understanding of the gun situationin Finland, where guns are typically common because of the love of hunting. Again, here, a sub-machine gun is not a requirement for hunting. Also, I hear no clamour in the UK for a law allowing us all to arm ourselves with either guns or knives to protect ourselves on the streets of London and other cities.”"
Did you actually bother to read what I had written before penning this pointless and nonsensical rant.
The attackers at Columbine had made 99 bombs, remove all guns from American and they would have still been full of hate and wanting to do this.
The bits of America that have higher crime are those with the most repressive gun laws where guns are simply not allowed. Contrast this to those areas which have both concealed and open carry of guns which have the least crime.
Just because the public in the UK don’t know enough about this and therefore get dictated to by the media doesn’t mean to say that they are right. Allowing decent law abiding people to have guns and shoot criminals would send crime down a lot.
Oh I see…..someone holds a contrary viewpoint and that makes it “pointless and nonsensical”!
Let’s not take guns out of the equation because they can always throw bombs at each other……..sorry, yes, having re-read your erudite musings it now makes perfect sense.
Now I’m off to source a couple of machine guns or maybe an RPG or two….any ideas?
“”Oh I see…..someone holds a contrary viewpoint and that makes it “pointless and nonsensical”!”"
I would much prefer you to take a contrary viewpoint *PROVIDING* you actually say something logical and coherent.
For example ‘guns *ARE* more convieient than bombs’ irrespective of your infantile witterings. Guns can be purchased from gun shops, bombs have to be made.
For example a sub machinegun is great for taking on burglars.
Also that popular opinion is not always right simply because it is popular.
Also that the attackers at Columbine *DID* make 99 bombs, take away the guns and they would still have gone on with the attack because the reason for their attack was to do with their hatred of society not because they had access to a particular toolset.
Also that in any decent society people shouldn’t need an ‘excuse’ to look after themselves properly and the mere fact that any society whose members to take a proactive approach will automatically have less of a crime problem.
Next time engage your brain before commenting.
Firstly, banning ANYTHING only takes it away from the law abiding normal person – the criminals and the nuts still get hold of it whatever it is. So, unless your fear is of or for the law abiding citizen, don’t ban anything, it’s a waste of time. Certainly there is no point in banning guns, by all means license and control them by properly investigating the person who wants them, if you must, but it won’t solve much. The UK is currently one of the most violent places on the planet. There is no evidence that the banning of guns has done anything except make it impossible for a few potential Olympic medalists to follow their sport. Ban guns and knife killings increase exponentially. Likewise ban knives and axes will replace them, or lead pipes to beat people to death. Just the same way as the current vogue seems to be for gangs of “hoodies” to kick people to death.
Doesn’t ANYONE ever figure out the obvious? It’s SOCIETY that’s the problem, not the armament! Education, authoritarianism. feelings of despair and rejection, political and economic failure in the country and so many other similar things contribute to this, but the fact is that Brits are so pissed off you wouldn’t believe and recent successive governments and the media are jointly and severally to blame. Most Brits cheered for farmer Martin who shot a thief who broke into his house when the police had been andlessly asked to do something about vandalism and had done nothing, as usual! We all love the old Vigilante films and applaud the actions of “good guys” who take the law into their own hands and actually DO something about injustice.
The UK has more CCTV cameras in it’s towns, cities, motorways, highways and all over and is subject to more surveillance and control that anywhere else in the world – stricter even than the old East Germany. Yet crime is rife, yobs roam the streets putting normal citizens in fear of their lives, drugs are everywhere and the police are useless and often powerless – when they are not too busy to be out preventing crime because they have hundreds of quadruplicate forms to fill in for pointless bureaucrats who have no idea what day of the week it is, let alone know anything about policing.
Oh, and by the way, most of the highway and other outdoor CCTV cameras are not monitored a lot of the time – only during the day when they are pointed continuously at the yellow lines and bus lanes that allow local authority minions to instantly snap anyone who stops their vehicle for a few seconds in the wrong place and automatically issue the OWNER, not the driver, of the vehicle with an average £100 fine – and they try to kid us the cameras are not “Big Brother” but for our protection. Bullshit! It’s blatant lies like that which have made Brits so desperately disillusioned and all too ready to kill each other.
@Middle Man: “… without access to guns, Columbine and Finland would not have happened”
NOT TRUE.
The technology of the weapon has very little to do with it. Don’t you remember a Liberal Democrat councillor who was cut down by some psycho with a samurai sword? Guns are the weapon of choice for these psychos because they make killing people easy. You need a little skill to assemble a load of bombs without blowing yourself up, so Caligula’s point is valid.
Why do these psychos exist? Why do they run amok with these killing sprees? How can we (as ordinary people) protect ourselves from them? These are the correct questions.
If you want to discuss the pathology of psychopathology, I think this needs a new thread.
I agree with your last paragraph, if I understand it correctly. The state, in a sense, created the “problem” of violent rebellion when it decided to coerce thousands of students into abject servitude in the name of “education” for a better future. Give people a choice in the type of school they are required to attend, and that can only make them more in control of their own destinies, and therefore happier.