In an ideal world, gun control would work.
Gun control laws and enforcement would make it possible for this lethal weapon to only be possessed by those whom we choose. By this, the world would be an invariably safe place to pursue enjoyable endeavors, such as education.
But any dose of reality will teach us that this utopia is not achievable. For one, there are other weapons besides guns. Knives, clubs and even fists have been used to take innocent human lives. Further, just like drugs, attempting to ban or strictly control something simply does not work. This is an especially high hurdle in the U.S., where a thriving black market undermines many of the efforts of lawmakers and law enforcement personnel. The defeat of gun control ideals can go on forever; here, we will at least assume that it is not the "solution" for which we seek.
So, does this imply that we should simply give in? No. Ask any gun rights supporter, and you'll see that even the staunchest will confide that those with criminal records, who are deemed mentally unstable, or who are otherwise a recognizable threat should not be afforded the same rights as you and I. Gun owners are not ignorant to these realities, despite what the NRA or media may have you believing.
Let us also consider the idea of a permit. In Virginia, for example, only citizens who are 21 years of age, who have no addictions to drugs or alcohol, who have a clean criminal record, and who have no documented mental illnesses can receive a concealed handgun permit. This permit, therefore, is a significant marker of civil responsibility, and is also a good predictor of such. This brings an important point: as an imperfect human race, the best we can do is to establish simple but effective controls to minimize dangers.
Leave a comment 4 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
I just read this article twice over and still can't figure out why the CT titled it "Gun Access is Necessary"...where the hell did that come from? Biased much??
Reply to this Top
a lot of the titles picked by the editors make no sense at all, I've seen several that give the exact opposite impression as the article
Reply to this Top
Yea, I'm not impressed with the title I've gotten, but I never have been before, either. The question I was asked was "what is your ideal gun control regime?" I answered this with a personal viewpoint rather than from my stance as former Campus Leader of SCCC, but with the title I got, I think I should have done otherwise. Why can't authors pick their title if they can write everything else? Anyway, thanks for reading.
Reply to this Top
Because of the widespread use of digital technology, generating fake pictures has never been easier. Making fake photos of celebrities to impress your friends or doctoring media photos to alter public opinion is just as easy. Because image manipulation happens at the pixel level, detection is not as easy as it was before the digital era. Tricky fakes can be exposed by algorithms that detect discrepancies or statistical irregularities at the bit level. <a href="http://www.pskiller.com/">Photoshopped Image Killer</a> is such a good example of this kind. It's free.
Reply to this Top