Those who support such measures argue that having armed ‘good guys’ to confront the ‘armed bad guys’ would give otherwise helpless schools a fighting chance in the event of a shooter on campus. Those who oppose such legislation argue that introducing a gun into the school climate creates more chances for accidents than it does for the gun to be used for defense.
Gun control is one of the most heated debates currently facing our society, and on each side of the debate people provide statistics to support whatever argument they are pushing forward. MSNBC will tell you that the country needs more laws like Chicago which has some of the harshest gun laws in the nation. Fox News will counter that Chicago has some of the highest rates of gun related crimes in America; MSNBC will then counter with the fact that Chicago’s neighboring towns have some of the most lax gun control laws in the country and people in Chicago simply by their weapons there.
Conservatives will give the trite and spurious argument that because ‘bad guys’ don’t follow the law, that no amount of gun legislation will matter. Liberals will then give make an absurd counter argument that such logic means conservatives want an end to all laws because ‘bad guys’ don’t follow any law.
Such dialogue proves ineffective and counterproductive. Seeking to strengthen your argument by comparing proposed legislation to limit access to guns to the actions of Nazi Germany is not only ahistorical, but serves to trivialize the Holocaust… and once again does nothing to progress the discussion on how to best address the gun violence in our country.
For real change to occur a few things need to happen. First, both sides, Liberal and Conservative need to recognize that a problem exists… this they have done. Second they need to stop the trite banter and political posturing which includes intentionally inflammatory comparisons and poor historical perspective. Finally both sides need to recognize that simply because a person does not agree with you, does not mean that person is stupid or uninformed; and perhaps they should remember that the thing which makes this country great are those disagreements and our ability to productively disagree.
Assuming those who disagree with you are ‘idiots’ illustrates nothing more than your own ignorance and arrogance, and as long as this mentality exists on both sides of this debate, I fear nothing of worth or merit will result.
Thoughts?