Guns Don't Protect Anyone – This Is an Idea That Must Become Extinct ASAP
The underrated solution I see no one talking about that could disarm America.
Guns piss me off.
America just doesn’t get it, and that’s why more people continue to die. It’s bad enough that adults shoot each other in the head. Or families shoot each other on Thanksgiving.
But the part that makes my blood boil is school kids shooting each other.
I mean, school is supposed to be fun. Yet in America it’s a death trap.
The Donald Duck Solution
When the recent school shootings happened in America former president Donald Duck said “this is why we need guns.”
These types of stupid remarks are why America is such a dangerous place. The reason the smarter side of politics does nothing about guns is because they’re handcuffed.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) protects gun owners in the US. They are a powerful political force and contribute cash to candidates running for president.
So Biden can’t just wake up one day and ban all guns. If he does, gun owners and the NRA will cut off his funding.
He needs their cash.
“Give more people guns”
That’s the solution some morons offer.
I mean, let’s give the teachers guns to protect them from their crazy students. Wait, hold up… we need to give the students guns, too, to protect them from their crazy teachers.
Where does it end?
Do we arm the cute puppy dogs too in case their owners go crazy?
What about babies? Should cute little infants with chubby cheeks have protection too? Maybe a small gun would help them. Like the tiny pistol James Bond carries around.
The idea that giving out more guns will lower gun violence is an oxymoron spread by morons.
Why I didn’t move to America
In 2016 I caught the tech bug.
I wanted to move to Silicon Valley to work in tech and high-five the bros. Delusional, I know. Before fully committing to the move I thought it was best to visit. I stayed in San Fran, Santa Monica, Hollywood, and Downtown LA.
I went to places like the Tenderloin and Skid Row. Everyday people had guns out in the open. I saw fistfights. Police chases, even. It felt like it was only a matter of time until punches became bullets. I was scared for my life.
The nice suburbs were no safer.
Late at night in Santa Monica I saw multiple people get robbed. The glitz of Hollywood became quickly overshadowed by the seedy underground that lurked at night.
Not once in America did I feel safe. Guns are the reason.
A man with a gun is not a cowboy. He is not a hero. A man with a gun is a consumer and someone sold him a gun – John DeVore
In Australia, where I live, we used to have guns too.
In 1996 the Port Arthur Massacre shook our tiny island. The government stepped in and banned guns. There was footage on the news of all the reclaimed guns stacked sky-high at the rubbish dump, ready to be disposed.
As research for this article, I tried to find data on mass shootings in Australia.
There isn’t any. Since 1996 gun violence has gone right down.
In recent years guns used by police seem to have gone down too. Now the police have tasers and pepper spray so the need to shoot people is much lower.
Physical violence is still high in some areas of Australia. The difference is, punches don’t become bullets because guns are so rare.
I can happily walk the streets at night without worrying about guns. I took this privilege for granted prior to 2016.
Now it’s the reason I stay in Australia.
I don’t want my daughter born into an American society where it’s acceptable to shoot innocent kids in the head if you have a bad day.
Australia isn’t the only country to drastically reduce gun violence. Japan did it too.
Gun violence is firstly a mental health problem
I love the tv show America’s Got Talent.
Recently, I watched an episode featuring a young 21 year old man named Avery Dixon. He tells the judges on the show a bit about his life. They ask him why he chose to play the saxophone of all things.
He tells them that in school kids bullied him because he was born prematurely. That meant his face looked a bit different and his voice sounded funny because of the effects on his vocal cords.
Every day they’d call him Hammer Head and make fun of him. It led him to want to take his own life.
But he didn’t.
Through some miracle he found the saxophone. He took the mental health issues he faced due to the bullying, and channeled his energy into the saxophone.
As a result, he became exceptional. World-class. A theatre full of 4000 people got on their feet and cheered after his Got Talent performance.
Judges were in tears. I was in tears.
But things could have been different.
Thanks to easy access to guns all it would have taken is one bad day at school to go, “you know what, screw you.” And then shoot up all the bullies and his fellow students out of anger.
That’s all it takes with guns … ONE BAD DAY.
Then people get murdered for no reason. There’s no going back. There’s no second chance. There’s no time machine.
Guns aren’t the only issue.
Mental health issues in America need treatment too. So does the problem of high school bullying that leads victims to shoot up their schools, Duke Nukem style.
Possible solutions to gun violence
These suggestions are ones I found in my research.
“Give kids a ballistic blanket.” They cost thousands of dollars and would need to be carried to school every day.
And unfortunately they only protect against small pistols. If the shooter uses a real gun, ‘a man’s gun’, then your kid is screwed.“Thoughts and prayers” is another nice solution. Politicians don’t address the problem, they simply wish families all the best. They may as well say “you’re on your own” or even better, “we don’t care buddy.”
Nice words are useless against bullets and angry boys.A Texas governor suggested that schools need to be turned into fortresses to protect against gun violence. There should only be one entrance.
Make the school a bunker. Heck, teach school kids to become GI-Joe soldiers instead of English or Math. That’ll stop the bullets!
And then plenty of dumbass grandpas in power just said we should make it easier to get guns.
The kickass solution to gun violence
America isn’t going to wake up and suddenly be gun-free.
This idea is stupid and comes from utopian dreamers. Guns exist because the NRA is a powerful organization that can’t be stopped.
The only way to fix the problem is to start small.
Don’t ban all guns. Nope.
Create mild restrictions. Like anyone under 25 can’t buy a rocket launcher, only an AK-47. Or maybe 8 year olds are blocked from using their daddy’s pistol until they're 18. Or maybe guns need to be locked away after midnight in a safe.
Once one restriction becomes law we can measure the impact. If the restrictions have an impact, and they will, then there is evidence to support more restrictions. With one restriction at a time we can disarm America.
We can fight the NRA with data instead of guns, hatred, and more anger.
Guns don’t protect anyone. But to protect the world from crazies with lots of money, guns and power, we must be smarter.
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I forgot to mention, Canada's largest city, Toronto, has a buy-back amnesty program to get handguns and other weapons off the streets every few years. The last one was such a success that gun homicides have dropped substantially - alas, only to be replaced by stabbings, which are all too often fatal. But it's very difficult to stab more than one or two people at once, so the injury/death rate is going down.
We also have to stop creating and watching violent games and movies.
I never bought a violent game for my child when he was growing up and I never allowed games or toys with violent tendencies, like toy guns, in our home.
Whatever we acquire works for us, be it in a good or bad way.
If we acquire good books, we read and gain good knowledge.
If we acquire guns and violent games, we shoot each other.
We see that in a lot of American families, where siblings shoot one another.
Charity begins at home.
Keep your space sacred.
Thanks for your article, Tim.
Sadé Tolani ☀️
Sasha’s Chronicles