Do School Shootings Show Our Freedom or Lack There of?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/another-day-another-tragic-school-shooting/2015/10/09/62f5077c-6eb5-11e5-b31c-d80d62b53e28_story.html
The article above discusses the high frequency of school shootings. We hear about these multiple times a year, the article says that there have been 52 school shootings just this year. This number keeps rising, as seen by there being 149 school shootings since 2013. Meaning that just this year alone we have had 1/3 of all the school shootings in the past 2 years. We discussed the government taking away freedoms while ensuring others. This article takes a political stance saying asking when will the government start caring about the lives lost over how many assault weapons they want. I think that the protection of the country as a whole should be the top priority of the government, but right now all I see every time I turn on or read the news is another fatal shooting, sometimes with the caption 'only one person was fatally shot' why is one person dying a good thing?
In today's society there is a lot of controversy over certain freedoms. We discussed in class about whether the government gives us freedoms or limits them. The bill of rights was brought up, saying that these were the freedoms that the US government isn't allowed to take away from us. However they have been interpreted differently throughout the history of the country. Now I know that the second amendment gives us the freedom to own a gun, but as discussed in class in regards to speed limits 'we have the freedom to not die'. If these are both true then why are so many people dying because of guns? I think that one freedom should not compromise another yet here we are at what feels like a paradox, no one wants to give up their machine guns or die. Like Rousseau thought technology ruins us, unfortunately we have never realize it before it's to late. I think that in light of school shootings Rousseau was right.
How do you think that we should work through this perceived paradox? Are some rights more important? Should we give up natural liberties for government created ones?
ReplyDeleteThis is a tough paradox because many people want to retain their right to have a gun, but also want to feel safe and secure in their country. I do not think there is any solution to solve this paradox 100% because there will always be people out there who will harm others. However, when it comes to guns and killing people I think we can limit these incidents by imposing stricter gun control laws, as well as mandatory mental health assessments when people purchase guns. By making stricter provisions on gun usage we can eliminate some of the issue that comes with allowing people to exercise their 2nd amendment rights.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hyla that stricter gun laws need to be created. I think that laws do limit but they also protect and secure certain freedoms. However, the laws created especially under the Constitution are quite vague. This allows for many things to be interpreted different ways and for some to believe certain behaviors within the law are fne while others may disagree. For this reason I do not believe we will ever solve this paradox and government should continue this process of giving liberties and establishing rules. These rules should be based off of what is going on in society and if something is going wrong it should try to fix it
ReplyDeleteIn this case, I think it is okay to change the laws considering how many people have died in shootings this year alone. It is also worth noting that in countries with stricter gun laws (such as Australia and Japan), there have been almost no shootings. I found an interesting example in Australia, where after a mass shooting 10 years ago, the government enacted very strict gun laws and there has not been a mass shooting since.
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