I’m lucky enough to have grown up in Australia and have only ever known strict gun laws. I couldn’t be more glad that my country has taken this stance on firearms: I don’t live in fear when attending university classes, watching movies, or going out to clubs. Sadly, it is a reality that I often overlook, that not all countries have this luxury.
The saying “guns don’t kill people; people kill people” is technically true, but guns make it a lot easier to kill a greater number of people with far less effort. The only purpose of a gun is to destroy a target. Why should any civilian feel the need to own such a device? Especially civilians in developed countries! Sure, knives, axes, hell even baseball bats can kill, but that isn’t the main function of these tools.
It would be naive to say that simply making guns harder to obtain would stop all gun deaths, however, it is a start. As well as stricter rules on obtaining the weapons in the first place, the human aspect needs to be taken into account. Increased aid to the mentally unstable, identifying those who are at risk of becoming violent extremists (for all religions and political factions) and preventing the slippery slope these people go down that consistently ends in tragedy, are all steps that can be taken to curb murder caused by guns.
My heart goes out to all who have recently died at the hand of a firearm, whether it be through senseless murder, war, or suicide.
mechanicalpen 
Your artwork is very powerful and poignant. Having lived in the UK for the overwhelming majority of my life, I too cannot fathom the attitude towards guns here where I now live in the US. There is a complete disconnect between understanding the original intent of the second amendment and how it ought to apply in the current context. It is unfathomable to me how tragedy after tragedy can occur and yet politicians cannot free themselves from the yoke of the gun lobby enough to put a halt to it. The willful impotence is unconscionable.
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I couldn’t agree with your views more. The sad thing is, as many people have pointed out, if gun reform couldn’t be instated after the tragedy that was Sandy Hook, what could it possibly take to change the general consensus?
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Absolutely. I find it staggering the number of tragedies where people have said “enough” and yet done nothing. The current sit-in in congress makes a powerful statement about the political stalemate on this issue but it’s literal inaction meeting persistent impotence. There’s inadequate will to make any change. The fact there’s not even agreement about not letting people on no fly lists purchase guns pretty much sums up how ridiculous it is. Money from the gun lobby speaks to the powerful more than the deaths of so many every year. The complacency is abhorrent.
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I agree fully with you. Being someone who lives in the US (Southern US to add), I do not see why the additude towards guns is so accepting of them. It’s as if people here forget that their main function is to to harm or kill both people and animals. And though people say that shootings almost never happen, the recent shootings with Christina Grimmie and the Orlando night club beg to differ. I definitely agree that guns need to be much more regulated in the US, as other developed countries have done.
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What frustrates me most of all is that the gun issue is only brought into light when major tragedies such as these happen. The rest of the world starts to apply pressure when it’s a celebrity that’s killed or a gross number of innocent civilians, but we are all to quick to forget that there are hundreds dying each week that go unnoticed outside of the US. If this debate angers me and I’m 15000+km away, I cannot even begin to understand how you are feeling.
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Reblogged this on Westkana and commented:
My thoughts exactly. I know it’s a really left position, but I agree.
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