The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: Opinions

MICHAEL FITZPATRICK

I can hear the cries already.

"Guns are bad," or "ban all firearms" and blah, blah, blah.

Enough already.

The tragic events of Saturday afternoon should not be blamed on gun control or the lack thereof.

They should be blamed on the person responsible, the person who premeditated this attack when he told his classes Thursday there would be no additional classes and his students didn't have to take their finals.

They should be blamed on Prof. George Zinkhan, not on guns.

There is an old and cheesy saying that goes, "Guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people."

And as corny and ridiculous as that adage is, it's true.

Anyone who thinks that if the United States had a ban on guns this tragedy wouldn't have occurred is more naive than an 8-year-old.

People intent on committing malicious and senseless acts of violence will find a way, no matter what.

If guns were banned, he would have found a way around it. That's just the way crime works.

People seem to have this notion that just because something is illegal, all crime using that illicit object will vanish.

The right to bear arms is one of the most important rights a U.S. citizen possesses and, unfortunately, it is under constant attack.

It is no secret that President Barack Obama wants to restrict the public's ability to purchase guns. The week of his election, the FBI received 374,000 requests for background checks on gun purchasers, a nearly 49 percent increase from 2007.

According to the NRA, the National Rifle Association, as the amount of people owning guns increased, the number of violent crime decreased. The NRA estimates that as of 2007, there are 250+ million privately owned firearms in the U.S.

But every year since 2002, violent crime has been lower than any point before 1974.

Murder is a tragic and senseless act, and premeditated murder is one of the most cold-blooded and heartless known to man.

But people get carried away and take the act of violence out on the weapon of choice. If he had used a kitchen knife, would you see people calling for the ban of knives?

Of course not, but that's not how the world works.

People see and believe what they want to see and believe.

And as if the gods were conspiring against me, while writing this column, news filtered in of a shooting at Hampton University in Virginia.

No one was killed, but it was still a school shooting, and the buzz words that sends parents and anti-gun crusaders into a frenzy.

Gun control is an issue that needs to be addressed, I concede that.

I concede that it is far too easy for people in some states (Georgia) to purchase guns. The only time a permit is needed is for the right to carry.

But as long as an individual is over 18 and has not been convicted of a felony or has documented mental instabilities, a citizen of Georgia is free to purchase a gun of his/her choosing, and that is far too lenient.

An outright ban on guns will solve nothing, it will only increase gun violence. Those looking to break the law will not be deterred from acquiring a gun because guns are illegal.

A ban on guns will only affect the law-abiding citizens who purchase them for hunting or personal safety.

The government needs to concern itself with teaching gun safety, not gun abolition. It's kind of like when Pope Bendict XVI recently tried to say the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa is abstinence.

Stupid.

Nearly everyone who heard that scoffed at the preposterous idea and bemoaned the leader of the Catholic Church as being old fashioned and unable to merge with the changing times.

The same idea needs to be taken with gun control. Make the minimum age to purchase a gun 21, like alcohol.

Make prospective buyers take gun courses to prove they are capable of handling a weapon, like getting a driver's license.

They are very simple solutions to a seemingly endless and stupid debate.

My uncles each own enough guns to supply a small militia, but both are extremely wary of allowing anyone else to handle them. They are sticklers on gun safety and on more than one occasion forbade me from handling them for something as small as pointing the gun skyward.

My dad used to keep a shotgun under his bed. And my family isn't alone in this.

The average American gun-owner should not be punished for the senseless acts of another deranged individual.



- Michael Fitzpatrick is a sports reporter for the Red & Black.

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