Guess What, Everybody? We Have Weapons of Mass Destruction Here to Worry About

Over the weekend, I finished catching up on all the coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. There was lots of talk about federal and state reviews, updating of security plans, implementing new lock-down procedures, blah blah blah. But I don’t recall a single person (politician, news anchor, pundit, commentator, witness) calling attention to the one issue that has been hanging around forlornly in the forum of public debate ever since Columbine: banning handguns. Before we go any further, how about a quick, easily-digestable list of our country’s spectacular string of multiple-victim gun crimes?

• McDonald’s massacre (California-1984)
• Richard Farley shootings (California-1988)
• Stockton Massacre (California-1989)
• Luby’s Massacre (Texas-1991)
• Jonesboro Massacre (Arkansas-1998)
• Columbine shooting (Colorado-1999)
• Xerox Murders (Hawaii-1999)
• Wakefield massacre (Massachusetts-2000)
• Wendy’s massacre (New York-2000)
• Beltway Sniper attacks (Washington, DC-2002)
• Red Lake High School massacre (Minnesota-2005)
• Amish School shooting (Pennsylvania-2006)
• Capitol Hill massacre (Washington-2006)
• Trolley Square shooting (Utah-2007)
• Virginia Tech Massacre (Virginia-2007)

What is it with our weapon-loving American culture, and what is it going to take for us to wake up and realize that we need to ban handguns and assault weapons now?

Comparing gun policies and gun statistics across various countries can be complicated, but let me try and put it in simple terms. Of the top twenty countries with the highest per-capita homicide rate, all of them allow an average citizen to own a handgun. Of the 20 countries with the lowest per-capita homicide rate, none allow the average citizen to own a handgun.

People argue that having a handgun is the best way to protect themselves against killers like Seung-Hui Cho. But that’s bullshit-- the state of Virginia already allows unlicensed “open carry” of a handgun, and nobody on campus at VA Tech had a gun or was willing to use it. Besides, there are cheaper and more effective ways to protect oneself than owning a firearm.

It seems to me that we need to learn the lesson that Australia did back in 1996. It was in that year that 35 people were killed by a lone gunman at Port Arthur (a tourist spot in Tasmania)-- an event which shocked 18 million Australians.

Newly elected Prime Minister John Howard seized the day by introducing significant firearms restrictions. Against a background of overwhelming public support, sweeping laws were enacted in all states, which included mandatory gun licenses and registration of all firearms, and a near-complete ban on all semi-automatic weapons and handguns.

For us in the U.S., how many lives will it take to wake everyone up and demand change?