Go get your gun

When I was 11 years old and nearing the end of my time in primary school, I remember our headmaster, Mr Brown, gathering both Year 5 and Year 6 in the school hall each week for what he called a 'debating session'. What he proposed was something which was done more frequently in schools in the mid twentieth century and across the Atlantic. A controversial topic was chosen and two people were told to research one side of the argument, whilst another two pupils were asked to argue the other side. After a week to prepare, they would then be asked to present their arguments to the rest of the class and take any questions about their viewpoint. Then our headmaster would take a vote and the pupils who argued their points most elequently by grabbing the most votes would win the debate. It was a great opportunity to talk about current events which the curriculum would not cover and I guess its something you develop, and you cannot simply teach. When the floor was open for topics for discussion, I remember suggesting as an example something like Northern Ireland (the question resembled 'should we give it back to the Irish' or something along those lines). On the very first occasion however, the topic was centred on whether or not everyone should be able to own guns, and depaite the topic I was chuffed to bits to be asked along with my good friend Chris to argue the case for uninhibited public gun use. My reservations were felt as I had no real conviction in this argument. I knew Chris more pro-gun than I was, so I knew he had a better idea of why people needed guns. To be honest I cant remember what we argued, but I bet it was something along the lines of they gave people a greater sense of security if used properly, or that they can be good fun within the limits of the law. I can't remember who won the debate either, but again I could probably guess we lost because let's face it, despite the male vote and the bravado which comes with guns in popular culture, we had to fight the glaringly grim fact that guns actually kill people; a fact not blurred even when you're ten or eleven years old.

What makes me think about this moment in short history is that this is a time long before the tragic school shooting of Columbine and more recently, the Virginia Tech massacre last week. But it wasn't too far away from a recent gun tragedy. As primary school children we argued the cases for and against general gun use in 1995, and then in the following year, Dunblane happened. I was in high school when that happened, and it rocked our world. It then became obvious how easy it is for someone to do that in schools up and down the country. As a result of the shooting in Scotland, that very primary school where I spent my years now resembles Fort Knox; complete with bars on the windows, on all the doors, and an intercom system at the main entrance. On a visit back to see the teachers one time, I remembered how easy it was to walk in and out of the school compared to when I returned, dear old Mr Brown was even apprehensive over letting me through the doors to the place where I learned my right from wrong.

But here I digress - I only mean to show here that Dunblane did have an impact on our lives, just like the other school shootings of Columbine and Beslan did. What happened in Virginia will certainly do the same; It will make us run the same debate that we argued back in primary school. It will make us think about whether we should have guns in public hands, whether our schools are doing enough to protect our children, whether we should be banning all kinds of potentially lethal objects from their pockets. If we take the guns away, we may solve the problem. But before that, isn't there an underlying issue which everyone is forgetting? Why do these maniacs carry out these heinous acts in the first place? If they are mentally unstable, why are they being allowed to purchase guns? I am not ruling out the role of guns completely here, but it is clear that something else is at work here which makes America the school shooting capital of the world.

It is not a strictly an American phenomenon, but it is certainly one which America has to accept a particular unwanted monopoly of. Critics have now placed much emphasis on the effects Columbine has had on a generation of gun-toting teenagers and because it keeps happening and gets notoriety in the press, it will keep happening. Britain isn't a gun-free paradise itself as gang warfare is on the rise, but here it just doesn't happen to the same scale as it does in the States. The most disturbing thing about these shootings is that kids are often the shooters - at kids, by kids. Whe Dunblane happened, we made sure we took steps to rid our streets of guns so another massacre like that could ever happen again, by appealing to everyone to simply give up their guns. In the States, that just isn't going to happen.

For me its the complete arrogance of the Americans when it comes to the issue. In the States, the very notion of not having a gun is just uncomprehendable. They argue it is pretty much their God-given right to have one, to protect their interests and their property. If that argument fails, they wave the Constitution in your face like a wet fish stating that gives them total justification to have that Gloch in their back pocket. The debate I experienced in school would just not happen, because the law gives the right and sets it firmly in stone. For Americans who love their guns, their conscience is eased, or never even envoked by a law made over 200 years ago. And to think 200 years ago, we thought slavery was great for the economy. But slavery soon became to be considered inhumane and wrong. Why? Because it felt wrong. If a piece of paper said it was right, they knew in their hearts deep down that something wasn't right about it. Their moral conscience spoke up and overturned any law that was in place. So why should Americans hide behind their piece of paper - if they can prove that they can have guns, they should do it not by saying "But the Constitution says we can". One excuse was that some people would rather take things into their own hands because they don't trust the government or the police. Maybe more energy should be placed into making the public trust their government and the poilce force. Easier said than done, but a step nonetheless.

To some, this problem is just about getting rid of all the guns - no guns, no way kids can massacre other adolescent teens. Guns do of course represent a large part of the problem, but underneath, we seem to forget that these people shoot for a reason, and in addition, because they can. Family problems, broken homes, kids who don't fit in - yeah they all have their role in this too. But their regular, usual and unordinary raging hormones are given a real chance to flourish into a horrid evil with immense power at their fingertips. A British kid may beat up some poor sod who walks down the street, an American kid pops into K-mart with a fraudulent ID and soon has a rifle to play 'cops and robbers' with. It is a moral question which Americans do not understand - in a land where liberty often overrules the ethical and the right, no real intention will be paid to gun control unless the Bush adminstration act upon it. And with financial incentives in consideration (see Bowling for Columbine for further details), I'm sure it will be a long time before America wakes up.