To the Editor:
Hello,
I am a student at Buffalo State College and an editor at our paper, The Record. While I was reading your paper I noticed a column called 'My Turn', and I have to say that I disagree with Mark Webb on his views of the Second Amendment.
If I am not mistaken, the Second Amendment was written some 220 years ago; back then the average American had a different set of worries; standing armies, roving militias, bandits, and the like.
What they didn't have, for obvious reasons, was knowledge of social disorders, brain chemical imbalances, semi-automatic weapons and systemic societal dysfunction.
Furthermore, It seems to me that during the birth of this nation, bearing arms involved a black-powder rifle that only a certain type of individual could afford, with a special kind of skill.
Today, Second Amendment enthusiasts claim that the problem with guns is the lack of training or skill. In my opinion, it is the lack of responsibility on the part of a gun owner, and more importantly, it is the lack of trust and respect that one has for another in modern society.
The alarming rate at which people have been shooting others over the past ten or so years cannot be attributed to one or two causes, that is for sure. And the accessibility of weapons is not the reason Columbine happened, but it isn't making things easier either.
Webb's view on the right to bear arms isn't exactly where I disagree; it is his suggestion that a fix for such a thing is to return fire.
I doubt Webb or a majority of readers have ever fired a weapon under such dangerous conditions. I know that I haven't, and hope that I never find my self in such a position, but shooting at targets and hitting the bull's eye is probably very different when the bull's eye is shooting back.
The mentality that the way to solve a violent problem is to mirror such actions is not only primitive and counter-productive, it promotes a simplistic view on such pressing matters.
Webb doesn't seem to wonder how such a person would foster such ideas and even follow through.
The issue here isn't whether shooters should have guns, or whether civilians should carry guns. It's what kind of life did these people live that forced them to go to such lengths? Is there something we as fellow citizens (and even human beings) can do to stem such root causes?
The shooters at Northern Illinois University, Columbine high school and Virginia Tech didn't just buy a gun one day and decide to go hunting. These ideas festered inside them, while the people around them went about their business. Society not only didn't notice, but after the fact, society pointed fingers. It's the guns, the video games, or the parents.
I think it's none of those, and all of those. It's the mindset.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
