We have another senseless tragedy on an American college campus, and we ask ourselves....why? A 43 year old former student at an Oakland, California Christian college decides to settle a score by killing seven innocent people. And as we scratch our heads, the obvious question eludes us. When, if ever, will we get real about gun ownership in this land of the free? Americans of all races, creeds, ethnicities, and intentions feel we must have a gun. It is, after all, our Second Amendment right! Isn't that what the National Rifle Association tells us? If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.
Actually, not so much.
The Trayvon Martin case is a startling example of an agressive person with a licensed gun and its result is a 17 year old kid is dead. However, if you simply look at carnage on college campuses, the numbers are startling. Since 1991 (November to be exact), 94 people have lost their lives when somebody who was supposed to studying higher education decided it was a time to kill instead. 33 of them were at Virginia Tech back in '07. Others are more difficult to remember. How about 2 dead at Simon's Rock College, 3 at San Diego State, 4 at the University of Arizona, and two more dead at Virginia Tech in December of last year.
In all, 94 dead in about 20 years. Whether the guns were legal or not almost doesn't matter. It's a broken system that allows people to purchase guns, then go out and kill people. This list of course, doesn't include high schools like Columbine, or post offices, fast food restaurants, or shopping centers (remember Gabby Giffords?). It also doesn't include a 10 year old kid from Norway who was visting his dad in Brooklyn the other day. He was shot in the abdomen by one guy trying to settle a beef in Williamsburg. The young man's father asks the same question so many people do. Why so many guns? What's the point? Thankfully, the 10 year old was released from the hospital after being treated.
I have a friend, a doctor, who specializes in the removal of bullets from the bodies of young people. He has a formidable reputation for bringing gunshot victims back from the brink. How ironic that in the world's most "civilized" nation, there are doctors who make their reputations this way. And sadly, we'll move on from the massacre at Oikos University in Oakland, just like we did after all the others. And we won't give a thought to our love affair with the gun.
Will we?
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We have another senseless tragedy on an American college campus, and we ask ourselves....why? A 43 year old former student at an Oakland, California Christian college decides to settle a score by killing seven innocent people. And as we scratch our heads, the obvious question eludes us. When, if ever, will we get real about gun ownership in this land of the free? Americans of all races, creeds, ethnicities, and intentions feel we must have a gun. It is, after all, our Second Amendment right! Isn't that what the National Rifle Association tells us? If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.