So, we had a knife-wielder at our local shopping centre this afternoon. Exciting times, particularly since he got shot by the cops, and three other bystanders got hit by ricochets and are in conditions ranging from serious to critical.
I was planning to go in to do some shopping just after lunch; as it turns out, I delayed and then this news broke. So, no shopping until later tonight (maybe).
I have a kitchen full of knives, which I use in the way that knives should be used. ie. Not on my fellow humans. Which, yay for me. However, there are people in this world who would use knives in ways that are socially deemed inappropriate - to threaten others and to injure them. They aren't many, but when they do manage to get out on a knife rampage, they can cause a great deal of damage...so long as they're close up and have a lot of people around them who can't move.
A gun, on the other hand, can do a great deal more damage from a long way away, while cutting off people's avenues to escape.
Tonight, my friend Jill and her daughters are sitting at home, alive and well. Tonight, a dozen mothers and their babies are going to greet their partners and say "there was a crazy guy wielding a knife at Westfield today, but the cops took him out" instead of "honey, our baby died in a fusillade of bullets". Tonight, there's only four people in the local hospital because of this situation, and three of them were an accident rather than a target.
Sure, a gun can be used safely and properly, for the appropriate circumstances, in one's right mind - as the cops showed today. And yes, accidents will still happen - as the cops showed today also.
But the magnitude of the bloodshed is significantly less. The potential for death and destruction is reduced. And it doesn't even require them to take away your own personal guns - just to enact controls on who sells guns, who buys them, and the type of weapons that can be used in civilian circumstances.
Ted Cruz claimed Australians have no freedom because we have gun control laws. Frankly, Cruz, I'll take my friends lives and the lives of all those people who survived today over the kind of 'freedom' you're offering.
I was planning to go in to do some shopping just after lunch; as it turns out, I delayed and then this news broke. So, no shopping until later tonight (maybe).
I have a kitchen full of knives, which I use in the way that knives should be used. ie. Not on my fellow humans. Which, yay for me. However, there are people in this world who would use knives in ways that are socially deemed inappropriate - to threaten others and to injure them. They aren't many, but when they do manage to get out on a knife rampage, they can cause a great deal of damage...so long as they're close up and have a lot of people around them who can't move.
A gun, on the other hand, can do a great deal more damage from a long way away, while cutting off people's avenues to escape.
Tonight, my friend Jill and her daughters are sitting at home, alive and well. Tonight, a dozen mothers and their babies are going to greet their partners and say "there was a crazy guy wielding a knife at Westfield today, but the cops took him out" instead of "honey, our baby died in a fusillade of bullets". Tonight, there's only four people in the local hospital because of this situation, and three of them were an accident rather than a target.
Sure, a gun can be used safely and properly, for the appropriate circumstances, in one's right mind - as the cops showed today. And yes, accidents will still happen - as the cops showed today also.
But the magnitude of the bloodshed is significantly less. The potential for death and destruction is reduced. And it doesn't even require them to take away your own personal guns - just to enact controls on who sells guns, who buys them, and the type of weapons that can be used in civilian circumstances.
Ted Cruz claimed Australians have no freedom because we have gun control laws. Frankly, Cruz, I'll take my friends lives and the lives of all those people who survived today over the kind of 'freedom' you're offering.
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