Melting Snow

Sunday News: Thoughts on Gun Control

Jamál (Beauty), 3 Kalimát (Words) 175 B.E. - Sunday, July 15, 2018

Pray for America!
It has a glorious future
if we can overcome this present disunity.

The Sunday News Prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" 
"The Aussie mayor who wants America to get tough on guns"

Annapolis, Maryland: As he sailed into the harbour at Annapolis, Gavin Buckley had a simple plan: sell his beat-up old boat, make some money and move on. It was 1992 and Buckley was a 29-year-old from Perth with $200 in his pocket and a lust for adventure.

"I thought I was just passing through but I loved the village feel of the place," Buckley says of the Maryland state capital, a quaint city of 38,000 people a 45-minute drive from Washington, DC. He got a job working at a bar, then fell in love with a waitress at a nearby cafe. He decided to hang around.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/the-aussie-mayor-who-wants-america...

I agree that there has to be more stringent gun control to keep those with mental illness from purchasing guns. However, I don't think that will solve the problem of mass shootings simply because prejudice and anger are not considered mental illnesses, and an individual can still purchase guns on the "black market"1. Another problems with guns is that they are a phallic symbol2, which gives people--especially those who feel powerless--a feeling of power when they carry or use them. Until this country is willing to deal with all the reasons for mass shootings--the visible symbol is the guns--gun control will not solve the bigger issue. Gun laws can cut down on the shootings, the problem is there are a lot of mentally ill people out there who haven't been diagnosed, and won't admit they have a mental illness. There are also people who believe that guns will solve all their personal problems, as well as, the national problems faced by this country.

Footnotes
1  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_market
2  http://www.dictionary.com/browse/phallic-symbol