Anyone not shocked and appalled by another mass shooting in the USA has a problem as bad as the killer or perhaps its too far away & not real to us here where its unheard of. In any case despite the easy go to idea of banning & removing guns to stop the slaughter & the gun crime...it's not that easy.
Here's what outraged Australian Media folk largely didn't mention. It won't eliminate it because legal access is not the actual cause of people deciding to kill another. If I put a gun in your hand, will it then cause you to stop & immediately decide whether to kill someone? I would hope not, but if it does then I think everyone agrees...you shouldn't have access. If we ban them all & you want a gun there's a good chance you'll get an illegal one.
Flashback. Small country town in regional WA in the 1970s.
Roughly 35 kids in the class & not all, but most went home to a house that had firearms.
No mass shootings...ever.
Question 1 - Why no killings?
Nearly every of those homes had a shotgun & a .22 rifle. No handguns. Most common shotgun would have been a double barrel but some had semi auto Brownings & a very few pump actions. There were no magazine capacity restrictions like we have here today.
Question 2- No Killings, why?
Gun safes were unheard of. Locking them up was unheard of. Kept in the parents bedroom, behind the door & one might just live behind the seat of the farm ute. It wasn't until 1990s that gunsafes started to be a thing.
Very easy to access no matter what your age.
Questions 3 - Why no killings
By the time most of us were 10 or 12, kids were allowed to use the .22 if they asked. To shoot rabbits or tin cans. Either on their own or when relative kids visited, especially city kid relatives.
Question 4 - No killings why?
Back then, no kid would even think of taking a pocket knife to school to show our mates let alone guns. but I do remember some kids did bring bullets & made them into necklace pendants. No primers, no gun powder but it was a thing with some kids for a while. They got the bullets from home. They could access guns & ammunition easily in the home.
Question 5 - Why no killings?
Fast forward to mid 1980s, gun safes let along big heavy lock up ones were still unheard of. At the Ag Colleges in Wood Work, gun cabinets & gun racks weren't an uncommon project, they were a thing. Part of the cabinets (non lockable & all wood) was the rack where guns were virtually on display. The easier project was the wooden gun rack that mounted on the wall. So anyone had access to them in the home.
Question 6 - No killings why?
In the 1970s & into the 1980s you could buy guns & ammunition at K-Mart. There were no Nationwide Police Checks, no applications with written advice on the reasonable need to have the firearm.
Question 7 - Why no killings?
Guns were easy to get, very few people much of a fascination with them although looking at the design, engineering and machine work is very impressive. Many families had ex-army 303 rifles. Either for rifle range, cadets (some were SMLEs but in .22). You could buy & sell them via a newspaper advert. No regulation against it, no one was bothered or worried.
So, easy to get, many had them. Few if any were secured & locked away lke they are today. In fact most of us lived in houses that did have locks but few ever used the house keys. Kids could access the firearms if they really wanted to, most had parental permission to use them. Some kids rode their pushbike to the rifle range on the weekend with the rifle slung over their back.
Question 8 - No killings why?
Whilst access allows a person to grab the gun & shoot people it's very clear that access & possession is NOT the cause of gun crime or gun deaths. If you are a convicted crimimal, not a fit & proper person to own a fire arm, have a mental illness then you're in for disappointment when you try getting a firearm legally.
You can however if you're a criminal with evil intent, you can always get one illegally.
There is, very sadly, no way in the world you can completely ban firearms & completely prevent bad people getting them if they want. Remember, hard drugs are equally illegal. They are quite assessible.
Something has changed since those days of the 1970s...and yes access has changed. In Western Australia they're harder to get, you have to prove you're a fit & proper person. You have to show you have genuine need & if you don't own a suitable size property, you need a property letter or prove club membership. Nowadays access is harder yet there is still gun crime, there is still gun homocide.
No matter what we do, we cannot eliminate homicide. We cannot eliminate murder no matter what we do, the best we can hope for is to reduce it as much as possible, everywhere we can.
Thankfully homicide, gun crime in WA is not common.
In the USA, even there in most states its not anywhere as quick and easy to get firearms as it used to be. In some states in the 1970s you could still own a machine gun. There are laws against that now unless it was made prior to 1986 & there is a strict permit system in place. There are not that many. People saying machine guns in mass shootings have all been wrong.
It's just possible that the decay of society is somewhat more to blame.
Broken families, no moral structure, less than strong family values of decency & regard for your fellow man, no father figure, no moral code or compass that rejects the use of revenge, violence & life taking...bullying, young marginialised youth, outcast & fascination with gangster life portrayed in music, youth culture...
That might just be it. Society is crumbling & something tells a person its ok to grab the gun, point it at someone & pull the trigger. Add in drugs, alcohol, social isolation, grim sub cultures...
Yes I haven't come across either single homocides or mass killings perpetrated by the Amish.
There's a hint in there. Did I mention no moral code or compass with good firm structured family life with a strong father/father figure who sets the rules, ensures all others keep & respects the rules.
Have you come across shootings by the Amish?
Yes, decay, social decay with a loss of proper moral values of any type and a reverance for the sanctity of life should be one of society's highest aims. You cannot legislate that but the government can urge & encourage that. If they do, watch a possibly equal backlash.
Meanwhile whilst no marriage in our home town in the 1970s & 80s was perfect but standards were high even if some were faked. Kids got a right royal gun instruction thing & the 2 things were near on belted into all kids. Never touch the gun without asking, never ever point it at anyone...never, no matter what, never point it even near someone. And the big one, consider all guns to loaded, treat them as if they're loaded even if they're not. The community was not perfect but it was a strong community, strong family values and people went to the aid of neighbours & others they didn't really know well when things weren't bad. Sanctiity of life was held as sacred. Yes there was the odd punch up at the pub but no one ever thought of going to the ute & grabbing the gun.
Society standards meant something. Morals meant something.
That has changed. In the USA the moral descent is greater, deeper and more widespread.
Marginalised youth, lessening family homes with proper structure of strong father figures, rules, morals, good parenting...consequences, punishment. A kid that is outcast socially & from that home life, plus dark websites, gang fascination & gaming where killing is rewarded.
And people wonder why there is a problem. The solution is not even slightly visible but pretty sure gun crime cannot nor will it or any other homicide ever be abolished. Nor will access to guns,
New Parents need to understand even the youngest child will see everythingt you do, they are more inclined to copy what you think, do or say than make a sensible moral judgement and be better than the parent. A wiser person than me said as far as a keeness to learn in school..."If they don't get it by 9 years old, they're not going to get it by 19"
That goes as genuine regard for your fellow man, to help & protect the weak and the vulnerable.
It just gets a whole lot worse if the child has been abused, bullied & may contribute to some mental health issues & the desire to spiral themselves with drugs & alcohol. There are certainly some fair opinions that suggest there is a fame culture amongst younger people, the internet gives platform and worse still, the darkest side of human nature is available online & it is very much amplified. Kids that end up mass killers certainly seem to be often deeply embedded in death cult fame culture & they're not (in the USA) the school's quarter back, head of the Cheerleading team, the popular kids. Go back to light hearted movies of the 80s & 90s.
Revenge of the Nerds. One set is brutally bullied, outcast & pushed sometimes violently below the carpet and public crushed socially. The theme of the movie was not buy a gun and go postal, but it was Revenge & retaliation. Nearly all action films are unfair horrid actions, some intrigue then horribly violent revenge killings. Watch Rambo. An expert in jungle warfare. He could disappear without any confrontation, instead he kills many & the movie theme causes the viewer to empathise with him, gives him permission to kill other humans & its seen as noble.
How many Hollywood films are really soft porn as in soft porn snuff films?
How many wives & kids are killed by baddies and the remaining widower parent puts together a plan to track them down & kill them all. Its an easy to sell sentiment but that's not how a lawful society operates.
Many say that its just entertainment.
Really?
If that is correct then the entire notion of advertising is false, it cannot work unless it show product, advantages & price but any entertainment value added in, people won't be attracted to the product.
Having seen gun crime up close, too close I can assure you when it happens, there is no reason or logic involved.
Oh, one final question & it's in light of the fact that every Radio Talkback Show, News & Current Affairs Show, every single Panel & Panel Discussion in this country has been pouring over the horrible senseless tragedy mainly on the angle on what needs to change, what is wrong, what laws need reform & what part of the culture is no longer relevent. And that's been non stop for two days now.
Why are we so far away, spending so much time talking about the laws that are structured completely differently to ours. Why are we diuscussing the need reforming in a foreign country & not also (not instead of, but also) talking about Uighar Concentration Camps in China, laws that need reforming & culture that needs cancelling in Africa & the Middle East. Or the huge number of grenade attacks in Sweden over the last 5 years? A friend in Illionis said the atrocity is beyond words but the another trgedy is complete radio silence on the numbers of gun deaths every day in Chicago, a US state said to have their nation's strongest laws. The weekend prior to the Texas School Atrocity there was another shooting spree in the Chicago. That's the capital of the state with the toughest gun laws. Its Democrat controlled. Gun sales are outlawed in Chicago but...
1) Where you can buy one in that State you need a "FOID" or Firearms Owners I.D.
You apply to the Illionois State Police, costs $10 & there's a 30 day wait.
2) You need to do a Firearms Training Course. $120-150. 4 hour class with 1 hour on the range.
3) Apply to Chicago Police for a Firearms Permit - $100, up to 30 day wait
4) Once you've done all that & you have your permit THEN you can buy a firearm. You can't but it in Chicago because Gun Sales are banned there, so get in your car & drive to a gun shop elsewhere. There you're going to find you can select your gun, pay for the Background check costing $10 and you have a wait time of 72 hours for approval. Then & only then are you able to walk out with the gun.
5) Then you have 5 days to register the gun. If you fail that time, its deemed unregisterable. Do not leave your house with it until its registered. That will cost you another $5 and wait time for registration receipt...up to another 30 days.
Just Let's Just Repeat That For Emphasis - One Weekend In Chicago, 33 People Were Shot...no mention on the media here in Australia.
Or fixing the drug addiction, homelessness, Domestic Violence, Health Sector Crisis, Organised Crime epidemic, here in Australia. I mean we are discussing it a bit. But less is likely to change with the focus on other countries in a quickening & spiralling Social & Moral Decline.
Report the news, leave the commentary for change on things we Australians can change like outdated Australian laws, Australian issues, threats & our weak and vulnerable. Just a crazy thought.
What do you think?
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