Ok, time for my knee-jerk liberal reaction to the Virginia Tech shootings. It's made big news here in Poland; pretty much everybody knows about it. I've had several discussions with students and friends, who, understandably, wonder what kind of country has such tragedies. I've been following the reports as well, and one statement has leapt out at me from most of them: "This is the deadliest campus massacre in US history." What bothers me about that is not the number of dead, though I am certainly saddened by that, and I feel deep sympathy for their friends and families. No, what I find most disturbing about that statement is that we've had so many campus massacres to compare this one to. This is the sort of thing that just doesn't happen in a lot of countries, at least not in Poland. They've certainly had their share of violence and repression, hardship and tragedy, more than seems possible at times, but campus shootings are truly unthinkable here.
How nice that is.
No metal detectors in schools. No full-time roving grief counselors. No media frenzies. No cliches like, "He always seemed so quiet." I tried explaining the expression "going postal" the other day, and that met with the same bewilderment. Because let's not forget our numerous workplace shootings as well. Don't know where Virginia Tech ranks if you include those, but I bet some statistician will be doing that soon; after all, schools and universities are also workplaces.
Why doesn't this happen here? Is it because people are more stable, less violent, less depressed, the culture values life more, Polish people are just better human beings? I don't think so. It's very simple in my opinion: THEY DON'T HAVE GUNS.
It's not that people are better in any significant measure, but if someone snaps in Poland, they just don't have the means to wreak widespread havoc. I once took an informal survey of several classes, asked the students if they owned OR knew anyone who owned a gun. Out of about 60, none owned one personally, and only two knew someone who did, in both cases someone outside their family. I can think of seven or eight people I know who are gun owners, and probably more if I tried.
I also think it's telling that this latest shooter was a first-generation American, a legal resident, but not from the US. That takes something away from any cultural arguments that we always make in our search for the reason "Why?" Virtually all of the 14-year-old boys among my students are devotees of various violent computer games, but even if they got that urge to try it in real-life, it would be nearly impossible for them to obtain a gun, and even then, it would likely be a single-shot hunting rifle, certainly not the kind of weapon one could use for a massacre.
I know, guns don't kill people, people kill people. But people without guns just can't kill that many at once without being stopped. When will we accept this truth and disarm ourselves? We don't appear able to stop individuals from having these impulses, but we can remove the means with which they act upon them. I, for one, would be willing to see America lose its preeminence in this category.
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6 comments:
I agree that here listening about shootings is quite "exotic". We feel that it's unbelievable that such things could take place in Poland. It's true that we are not used to having guns, further, seeing people with them around us, on the street. The best way to see gun is to go to shooting range. I also think that it's about the fact that we are not allowed to keep guns without permission, which is not so easy to get. But in our country the law is going opposite way, and things are utterly different than in USA . When you are being robbed and try to defend you may end in prison, accused of injuring the criminal...
It was nice scene about keeping guns in US in "Borat" (maybe you've seen it in cinema here), when one character is in Texas, not aware of the fact that just one step is separating him from death (one step into a texan's property protected in obvious way) and frightened when he is shooting to him after crossing "the border". Hope it's quite exaggerated...
There was similar situation in Australia (I don't remember when exactly but I suppose that it was 1996), where guns were allowed for everybody, but then one guy came and killed thirty tourists... And it was an end of liberal regulations about guns in Australia.
Sorry for my English, I'm still improving it ;).
Thanks for the comment. "Exotic" is absolutely the right word for how my Polish friends see this kind of thing. It is all too common in the US. Another measure of the difference here is fewer police shootings. Since people generally don't have guns, the police are less likely to assume they are armed, and less likely to use deadly force when trying to stop someone. Just another reason why I like it here.
And your English is much better than my Polish, so don't worry about it. Serdecznie zapraszam twoja komentarza (?).
You won't be surprised when I mention that the very next day in the Tacoma News Tribune there were 2 letters decrying the fact that this latest massacre was certain to give more power to the gun-control activists, and pointing out once again that "we don't outlaw cars, and they kill lots more people than guns." It sometimes seems it's utterly impossible to bridge this divide. Those who believe fervently in their right to own a gun and those who believe the cost to modern society of unfettered gun control is too high simply do not speak the same language. I do despair in moments like these, but perhaps THIS time the pendulum will swing far enough to enable some real action to be taken.
It may be worth it to say that the right to bear arms, which is protected in our Constitution, was a vital element in our ability to win free of British domination. As such, it carried tremendous force for many generations as a symbol of the ability of the oppressed to set themselves free. But, like so many other "rights," when taken to an extreme (as we have done in the US), it no longer seems to make any sense at all.
And there is another issue... The law says that Polish policeman is not allowed to be first to open fire - so if attacker would wound him - it's OK, but if he would wound the attacker - he would be fired and go to jail. There were some situations which consitute a prof of my words.
Polish policemen are practically defenceless, as ordinary people (I wrote about it yesterday), so it's really nice here as long as nothing happens...
PS. "Zapraszać" ("zapraszam") is mainly used with a person (so "zapraszam Cię", "zapraszam Matt'a" - You're welcome, Matt is welcome) and verbs, so it would be "zapraszam Cię do komentowania" (you are welcome to comment) :).
Privately you must be great if you like doing so wired things like trying to learn Polish (since it is thought that it is very hard to do). Of course I don't even mention things like "Wait, wait, don't tell me" ;).
Take care!
Dziekuje bardzo. Polish is indeed very difficult: I have lots of vocabulary and very little grammar. But I keep trying.
While I am a huge fan of the Constitution, I agree that the right to bear arms has been overused in our modern context. The founders hadn't imagined the kind of firepower that would be available to us in the future, and I'm sure this isn't what they intended. Personally, I'd be happy to let people continue to own muzzle-loading muskets that use ball and powder shots, as well as all the swords and knives they want.
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