The Control Agenda
May 20, 2014
A seemingly ordinary morning in a small city in Pennsylvania took a turn for the worst when a teenage boy went on a stabbing rampage at his local high school, wounding nearly two dozen people. America was thrown into commotion when exactly 16 days later, a Connecticut teenager stabbed and killed a girl who had refused his invitation to prom.
Such events, like those that occurred at Franklin Regional High School and Jonathan Law High School, instigate talks of enacting stronger weapon control. As for myself, after reading both headlines, I could not help but wonder if advocates of gun control will start lobbying for knife control. After all, it is quite obvious that not a single person walking the earth will ever kill again, if inanimate weapons are suppressed.
That, in fact, is what proponents of weapon control believe. But they are completely mistaken. According to a study by the National Rifle Association, the decrease in crime rate coincides with an increase in the number of privately owned guns. Although the NRA’s research focuses exclusively on gun ownership, the figures would have been similar if the research was about crimes that occur at the hand of a knife. After all, both are weapons that are capable of causing death and serious injuries.
After the Newtown massacre, the Obama administration responded immediately by calling for tighter gun control measures. However, this effort was to no avail. Even if strict gun regulations had been implemented before the shooting occurred, nothing would have changed, and the same 26 innocent people would have been killed.
Answers and explanations should not be sought via banning guns, knives, or any other type of assault weapon. It is altogether senseless and ridiculous to raise a clamor after every episode of violence, only to find fault with an inanimate object.
The problem lies within individuals behind the trigger or clutching the handle of the blade. Unfortunately, we fail to comprehend that these deranged people, along with their burning hate and desire to kill, are nurtured within our society. Once a person experiences unimaginable atrocities, blatant injustice and accordingly becomes a victim of the affair, he or she will use any means to satiate and express their deep-seated revenge.
Over the years, innocent victims have been killed with various devices. These include hammers, forks and screwdrivers. In desperate situations, people kill with their bare hands. If a better world with less crime rate can indeed be achieved by banning the object that is used for the killing, like proponents of weapon control claim, should we destroy cars, ban forks, or even cut off our hands and feet?
Banning weapons will never grant us our much-desired security. In order to put a stop to the killing of innocent civilians, we should try to understand why the weapon was acquired, not how.
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