Phil Mirzoev's blog

Friday, June 3, 2011

A note about the Americans love affair with their guns

This is my short reply to one blogger's question:
Do you think that it's not guns that increase murders, it's nations that are full of people demanding guns?
My answer:
Both are true.
Guns which are practically in an unrestricted circulation nation-wide of course rise the killing rate and not only that - suicide rate too. At the same time Americans have a very high percentage of people who don't value life enough in practice (the conservative historical legacy of the US). But guns in turn help to keep the very cult of guns and teach Americans from the cradle that guns are part of their culture and an integral attribute of their fight with 'bad guys'. America - we must recognize it and the faster the better for the US - is in this sense much more violent and blood thirsty in this respect than Switzerland and many other European countries for that matter. The death penalty is another very singular distinction in the mass mentality of the US from Europe (the idea of killing as a punishment is very live in the US)
But, guns increase murder rate too, and there's no reasonable doubt that the criminal killing rate in the same Switzerland would fall even lower if the free guns circulation was stopped. They were not invented to protect lives, the fire arms were invented to kill.
The very ban, or, at least serious modification of the rules which would give an individual the right to posses a real gun, would not only reduce directly the killing rate, but also would start a major review of the centuries old romantic love affair of America with their guns, would start some sole searching, and, maybe, today's children in the US will grow into some 'less American' and 'more European' adults in this respect:) One must start somewhere first with word then with deed.



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