Yesterday I heard on the news about the Connecticut school shooting. This comes on the heels of several other well-publicized shooting incidents. At the same time, our wonderful Michigan legislature has decided to allow "concealed carry" in "gun-free zones". Of course, they would no longer be gun-free zones, but who's paying attention?
Michigan already has an "open carry" law which means that with the proper permits one can walk around with an openly displayed holstered weapon anywhere that guns are not prohibited. Now with this new law people can walk around with a concealed weapon anywhere they please unless of course the property owner (malls, schools, churches) prohibits it. But if the weapon is concealed how are they going to know it's there?
America is gun-crazy. There is no doubt about it. More and more people (some you would least expect) are signing up for these concealed carry classes (you do have to go through a certain amount of training). Are people really that scared or is this another fad?
I grew up in the Sixties which was a terribly violent time (race riots, anti-war riots), and I don't recall ever hearing the level of gun hysteria that there is now. Maybe it's because riots were localized and not random, in the sense that they generally had a definite trigger and they took place in certain areas. If you didn't live or have business in those areas it was fairly easy to avoid them. For example the public high school (before it relocated) was prone to riots. My parents sent me to a private high school until things quieted down enough where it was safe to return to the public school. So I never personally had the experience of trying to go to class during a full-scale riot but I knew people who did.
So there were riots but people just randomly coming into a classroom and shooting things up? I don't recall ever hearing about anything like that until Columbine. I find that much more scary than a riot. Riots are somewhat predictable. Usually before one breaks out there's a level of tension that everyone is aware of even if they choose not to acknowledge it. We just had a riot this week up in Lansing between union supporters and supporters of the right to work law (more about that later in another blog). As riots go it was actually rather tame. No buildings got burned down and nobody was seriously hurt. I am quite surprised that nobody pulled any guns on anybody and started shooting. But the thing is everyone who had been following the news knew that this demonstration was going to be tense and those that didn't want to be involved stayed well clear of the area. In other words it was not a day to take your class on a field trip to the Capitol building to observe government in action.
I heard a story the other day that I hope was just another urban legend. Apparently the storyteller's elderly mother (who couldn't program a cell phone to save her life) ordered an AK-47 and ammo through the mail. She then called her daughter and asked her to come help her with the gun because she didn't know how to load it, etc. What in God's name does a 70-year-old lady need with an AK-47? I do hope this story isn't true because if it is it just shows how gun crazy we have sunk to.
The funny thing is that everyone complains about airport security yet when was the last time you heard of someone opening fire at an American airport? I work in a place that has a high level of security and I take it for granted that before I even come on the premises there are certain procedures I have to go through. No big deal. It's only when I hear the shocked responses of first-time visitors that I am reminded that most workplaces are not like mine. But then I work in an industry that is under constant threat. We take these things very seriously. Because of that I am much safer at work than I am at the mall or in a classroom!
I don't know what the solution is, unless it is to start insisting on the same level of security everywhere that now exists only in a few places. And of course people will yell and scream about that. But don't you dare suggest that guns ought to be regulated or restricted! Those little kids in Connecticut should be honored as martyrs to freedom. They gave their lives so we can walk around with guns, openly or concealed.
Crazy.
Michigan already has an "open carry" law which means that with the proper permits one can walk around with an openly displayed holstered weapon anywhere that guns are not prohibited. Now with this new law people can walk around with a concealed weapon anywhere they please unless of course the property owner (malls, schools, churches) prohibits it. But if the weapon is concealed how are they going to know it's there?
America is gun-crazy. There is no doubt about it. More and more people (some you would least expect) are signing up for these concealed carry classes (you do have to go through a certain amount of training). Are people really that scared or is this another fad?
I grew up in the Sixties which was a terribly violent time (race riots, anti-war riots), and I don't recall ever hearing the level of gun hysteria that there is now. Maybe it's because riots were localized and not random, in the sense that they generally had a definite trigger and they took place in certain areas. If you didn't live or have business in those areas it was fairly easy to avoid them. For example the public high school (before it relocated) was prone to riots. My parents sent me to a private high school until things quieted down enough where it was safe to return to the public school. So I never personally had the experience of trying to go to class during a full-scale riot but I knew people who did.
So there were riots but people just randomly coming into a classroom and shooting things up? I don't recall ever hearing about anything like that until Columbine. I find that much more scary than a riot. Riots are somewhat predictable. Usually before one breaks out there's a level of tension that everyone is aware of even if they choose not to acknowledge it. We just had a riot this week up in Lansing between union supporters and supporters of the right to work law (more about that later in another blog). As riots go it was actually rather tame. No buildings got burned down and nobody was seriously hurt. I am quite surprised that nobody pulled any guns on anybody and started shooting. But the thing is everyone who had been following the news knew that this demonstration was going to be tense and those that didn't want to be involved stayed well clear of the area. In other words it was not a day to take your class on a field trip to the Capitol building to observe government in action.
I heard a story the other day that I hope was just another urban legend. Apparently the storyteller's elderly mother (who couldn't program a cell phone to save her life) ordered an AK-47 and ammo through the mail. She then called her daughter and asked her to come help her with the gun because she didn't know how to load it, etc. What in God's name does a 70-year-old lady need with an AK-47? I do hope this story isn't true because if it is it just shows how gun crazy we have sunk to.
The funny thing is that everyone complains about airport security yet when was the last time you heard of someone opening fire at an American airport? I work in a place that has a high level of security and I take it for granted that before I even come on the premises there are certain procedures I have to go through. No big deal. It's only when I hear the shocked responses of first-time visitors that I am reminded that most workplaces are not like mine. But then I work in an industry that is under constant threat. We take these things very seriously. Because of that I am much safer at work than I am at the mall or in a classroom!
I don't know what the solution is, unless it is to start insisting on the same level of security everywhere that now exists only in a few places. And of course people will yell and scream about that. But don't you dare suggest that guns ought to be regulated or restricted! Those little kids in Connecticut should be honored as martyrs to freedom. They gave their lives so we can walk around with guns, openly or concealed.
Crazy.
