missivesfromghosts:thefallingsfaster:brsis:achievementhugger:thebabbagepatch:ilacktact:mycosmicreali
missivesfromghosts:thefallingsfaster:brsis:achievementhugger:thebabbagepatch:ilacktact:mycosmicreality:adeyami:US students will be able to shield themselves during school shootings with the latest in body armour, the Bodyguard Blankethttp://goo.gl/WwvECTAre fucking kidding me? I have been sitting at home and constantly watching the news after the events of yesterday. For those of you who are wondering, I am a junior at REYNOLDS HIGH SCHOOL! I was there when the shooter kept running in the halls trying to open the doors and get in. I was there in the dark praying and crying while my librarian kept saying ” they’ll have to kill me before they touch my kids” I have known her for three years, her determination to keep us safe broke her heart. Seeing this, that little children need protection in school. Are we sending kids to a battlefield? I have three little brothers ranging from 5-10, and still people have the nerve to speak about the second amendment? Really? I can’t even type anymore. I’m so disgusted and frustrated. When will you realize that it’s important to have gun control? When a shooter is pointing a gun at your child? Is that when you’ll realize that guns aren’t something to be kept around. People say it’s a free country but honesty, this country is more oppressed and diseased than any other country.Show me ONE instance where gun control and gun free zones prevented school shootings.Let me tell you guys a story. In 1996, in a little town in Australia called Port Arthur, a gunman killed 35 and injured 23. This place was a tourist attraction, with plenty of visitors and locals going about their business. 35 people died.That’s 35 marriages, anniversaries, birthdays or uni degrees. 35 people left Port Arthur in body bags.At the time, we had a pretty conservative government, and the Prime Minister at the time (in hindsight) was kind of a dick. But within two weeks of the shooting, Howard instituted a massive reform and buyback of all firearms. But it must be a statistical flaw, you say, there weren’t that many massacres before 1996, right? No, WRONG. In the eighteen years leading up to Port Arthur, there had been 13 mass shootings. But April, you ask, this couldn’t possibly have worked could it? Wouldn’t it only have reduced the mass shootings? WRONG.Since 1996, there have been ZERO mass shootings. That’s right, ZERO. FUCKING ZILCH. There have been scattered homicides, however:How many schools have been raided and children murdered? NONE.How many film buffs have been murdered in their seats? NONE.How many innocent lives have been lost to the barrel of a gun? NONE.On top of this, homicides involving the use of guns, and youth suicide involving the use of guns has declined dramatically, by up to 60%Australia, however much the environment tries to kill you, is a safe haven, and you can walk the streets with 99% assurance that you won’t fall victim to a drive by shooting.Your move, America.in 1987 a lone gunman killed 16 people, wounded 15 and then committed suicide. within six months the uk government passed an amendment to the firearms act effectively outlawing all high calibre, high frequency, high capacity rifles and shotguns.in 1996 another lone gunman killed 16 children and their teacher, and then committed suicide. again within six months the uk government outlawed all handguns. special dispensation had to be issued in order to hold shooting competition as part of the 2012 olympic games, and british hopefuls had to train overseas.you can legally own certain types of shotgun, .22 calibre rifles over a certain barrel length, and antiques. that’s it.in the nigh-on twenty years since the uk has had one mass shooting. one. and we’re down to about 30 gun-related deaths annually.there is not one example of gun control laws reducing mass shootings and gun-related homicide. there are dozens. it literally works every time. the usa is the anomaly not because it didn’t work but because it hasn’t tried.The biggest flaw with all of this is that CRIMINALS DON’T LISTEN TO THE LAWS! I don’t want to turn this into a conversation about women’s rights or anything, but I am going to use an example from my personal life. A few years ago, I ended an incredibly abusive relationship with a guy who had never even touched a firearm in his life (he was 19). He spent the next 6ish months threatening me regularly and showing up to my house/church/etc uninvited EVEN AFTER THE POLICE GRANTED A PROTECTIVE ORDER. More than once he posted my address, phone number, legal name, etc online and sent his friends to my house. He threatened to come to my church and kill anyone who got in his way. His father owned a firearm and had a permit for it and everything and my ex knew where it was and where the bullets were and told me he was going to come to my house with it. LEGALLY he could not do that as the gun was not his BUT HE DIDN’T GIVE A SHIT BECAUSE CRIMINALS DON’T FUCKING LISTEN TO LAWS. I don’t think I should have to risk him coming and trying to kill me with his illegal gun just because the government decided to take my very legal one away. I refuse to lay down and give up my rights just because a bunch of psychotic assholes have decided to start shooting innocent people! I know how scary that is to know that people are trying to kill our kids (and teachers!!) but lets find a way to make our schools safer without making our law-abiding citizens more helpless!The point of gun control is not that you are sternly told not to buy guns. The laws in the UK and other countries are not suggestions. The point is that it becomes nearly impossible to have firearms. In the UK your ex, who I am truly sorry you had to endure, would never have been able to procure a firearm. It wouldn’t have happened. His dad wouldn’t have had a gun. No one he knew would have had a gun. No one would have been selling guns. Guns might as well have been on the moon for him. It wouldn’t have mattered if he didn’t want to listen to the law. He still wouldn’t have a gun. The point is to make sure that people who have the capacity to do harm don’t have access to weapons that increase their capacity manyfold. People who want to hurt someone won’t not hurt them in other ways. Your ex would have still been an abusive dick. But those people’s capacity will be reduced to the point where they can be neutralized with far fewer casualties. You can’t gun down a school with a baseball bat. -- source link