Big, ugly, dirty, nasty things made for only one purpose: to destroy. To kill and to maim. To hurt. To tear down…To destroy.
Some say they are the instruments of freedom. The tools that hold our modern world together. That make all the grandness of modern civilization possible.
I can’t agree. The evidence is all around us. However society may have benefited from their invention, it has suffered even more.
Families have been destroyed, torn apart, permanently divided. They destroy our environment and make it unsafe to walk in our own cities. Innocent people have been crippled and killed–perhaps never even having handled one themselves, but merely standing on a street corner–struck down without warning and without reason.
They are responsible for more deaths each year than any other single implement of modern technology: more than forty-eight thousand in 1988. More children die each year in “accidents” involving these so-called tools than by any other single cause. Not just dozens or hundreds of children, but thousands: seventeen percent of all fatalities and forty-four percent of fatal accidents among children aged zero to fourteen.
People say the fault lies not in the tool, but in the hand that guides it. But what possible use could such an object of violence have in a peaceful society? Why should such a thing be allowed to exist at all? People say that if they were outlawed, then only outlaws would have them. But if they were banned altogether, if the manufacturers, the source, were shut down, not even the most violent criminals could obtain them. As it is, they are available on every street corner. They’re sold on the black market. In the classifieds of every newspaper.
Sure, there are already laws on the books. If only those laws were enforced. But they won’t be. The manufacturers, the dealers, the lobbyists buy congressmen. Exceptions are made for “collectible” models. Routine checks are bypassed. People with criminal records and histories of irresponsibility can buy them with no background check and no restrictions.
No, the only solution is an outright ban. People can and will still kill with clubs and knives, but not nearly as efficiently. A single angry teenaged boy could kill dozens of his classmates with one sweep of one of these deadly instruments. He would be hard pressed to replicate the Columbine massacre with a knife.
There is no reason for a peaceful, law-abiding citizen to own such a thing. Join with me in petitioning our senators and representatives. The automobile must be taken off our streets!
Some say they are the instruments of freedom. The tools that hold our modern world together. That make all the grandness of modern civilization possible.
I can’t agree. The evidence is all around us. However society may have benefited from their invention, it has suffered even more.
Families have been destroyed, torn apart, permanently divided. They destroy our environment and make it unsafe to walk in our own cities. Innocent people have been crippled and killed–perhaps never even having handled one themselves, but merely standing on a street corner–struck down without warning and without reason.
They are responsible for more deaths each year than any other single implement of modern technology: more than forty-eight thousand in 1988. More children die each year in “accidents” involving these so-called tools than by any other single cause. Not just dozens or hundreds of children, but thousands: seventeen percent of all fatalities and forty-four percent of fatal accidents among children aged zero to fourteen.
People say the fault lies not in the tool, but in the hand that guides it. But what possible use could such an object of violence have in a peaceful society? Why should such a thing be allowed to exist at all? People say that if they were outlawed, then only outlaws would have them. But if they were banned altogether, if the manufacturers, the source, were shut down, not even the most violent criminals could obtain them. As it is, they are available on every street corner. They’re sold on the black market. In the classifieds of every newspaper.
Sure, there are already laws on the books. If only those laws were enforced. But they won’t be. The manufacturers, the dealers, the lobbyists buy congressmen. Exceptions are made for “collectible” models. Routine checks are bypassed. People with criminal records and histories of irresponsibility can buy them with no background check and no restrictions.
No, the only solution is an outright ban. People can and will still kill with clubs and knives, but not nearly as efficiently. A single angry teenaged boy could kill dozens of his classmates with one sweep of one of these deadly instruments. He would be hard pressed to replicate the Columbine massacre with a knife.
There is no reason for a peaceful, law-abiding citizen to own such a thing. Join with me in petitioning our senators and representatives. The automobile must be taken off our streets!
