Dear editor,
The controversy continues … are guns the problem or the solution to violence?
The National Rifle Association suggests that we need more “good” people with guns to stop the “bad” people from shooting innocents. This is the underlying doctrine behind the vast stockpiles of nuclear arms and the present “war on terror”, and has been at the center of human conflict since the first people made the mistake of believing that they could individually judge what is good and what is evil.
President Obama claims that using both guns and common sense can be possible, but unless a person eats what they shoot, owning a gun simply allows every individual to trust their own judgment on who should live and who should die. This is the same arrogance that murderers possess, and puts the responsibility for judging “good” people and “bad” people squarely on the shoulders of “mental health experts”, who operate without any clear distinction between mental “health” and mental “illness”, (much the same as being helpless at judging “good and evil” from an individual perspective.)
The truth is that guns are neither the solution nor the problem. For a hunter, guns are no more threatening than a fish hook, and (as the NRA insists) guns don't kill people, people kill people. The solution to the real problem is in the education of our children. If they are not constantly encouraged to trust their own individual judgment of good and evil at home, in the classroom, in the churches, synagogues and mosques, in the media, and by almost all forms of human government, then perhaps the next generation has a chance to end violence and the arrogance that lies at its root.
Blair Hamilton
Port Hardy