Hanging By A Stethoscope

First of all, I have to say that, even if the Connecticut School shooting happened thousands of miles away from where I am now, I’d say that I personally feel the horror and the sadness this incident brought to hundreds of lives that surely will reverberate in the years to come. This is simply not just a loss of 26 lives…these 26 human beings had family members and friends who are deeply affected by it. And even if they did not die of the shooting, all of them will suffer some form of trauma, which will take years before complete healing sets in. This is simply not a massacre of 26 lives. It’s an attack to a community…a state…a nation…to a world whose simple dream is to live peacefully. No, it may not be in the scale of that terrorist attacks. But still, the Connecticut School shooting wasn’t merely an attack on 26 lives. It attacked an idea…that comfortable thought that in such a place like Sandy Hook Elementary, nothing like it would happen. And yet it did.

Like all of the onlookers and survivors of the shooting, I am plagued by so many questions and yet, the answers are so few and vague. How can anyone commit such a horrific crime? How can anyone have the nerve to march up inside that school filled with children, with guns and ammunition, and shoot 6 adults and 20 children before finally deciding to kill himself? Is this the work of an insane person? Or does he know the evil he’s inflicting every step of the way? I take it that some may feel comfort in the idea that perhaps the shooter was a madman; perhaps, he was so immersed in his version of reality that he doesn’t know that what he’s doing is evil. Perhaps, he isn’t really that “evil” at all; merely a person so detached from reality. But sadly, this scenario isn’t always true. As for the case of the Connecticut school shooting, as far as I know, the authorities have not yet established if Adam Lanza was in an insane state when he committed those crimes. It was only said that he suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, a disease described as a mild form of autism and not in risk for developing violent behavior, only prone to social awkwardness. Also, looking at the timeline of school violence that CNN published, it can be noted that not every shooter committed suicide or found insane. And so with these realities, we must accept that there are persons who are evil enough to commit these acts knowingly and with purpose. This is perhaps the source of our anguish and fear.

But a shimmer of hope lies in all these atrocities. If I could thank the teachers that stayed with the children during this horrific event and tried their best to alleviate their pain and fear, I would, with all sincerity and respect. Sandy Hook Elementary school is lucky to have these teachers during the crucial times. It would have been easy for any of them to maybe just lock the children in their rooms and flee or hide on their own, which could have had increased their chances of escaping unscathed. But they took their duty to heart. And for that, we must respect and thank them.

And maybe the reason why people across the globe mourn up to this time with America is this: it was a school of little children in a generally peaceful suburban area that the sudden attack of a lone shooter was made. It could actually happen anywhere. And so, personally, we felt the anguish, the fear, and the sadness…because if it could happen in a school of children, it could happen anywhere.

Like the other school-shooting incidents, this roused the hot debate on gun control once more. I must admit, I have been a supporter of right to bear arms for quite some time. I believed that one cannot simply eradicate guns; until one gun exists in the world, it needs another to balance the power. I believed that this is not the sole way to put down the seemingly continuous increase of gun-related violence (there are almost always one incident of school violence involving guns every year, according to the CNN timeline). And perhaps, I may be partially right: the problem isn’t simply gun control. It’s a multifactorial problem and the factors are quite significant.

In “The Geography of Gun Deaths” published in The Atlantic last January 2011, it was said that “10.2 out of every 100,000 people were killed by firearms across the United States, but that rate varies dramatically from state to state”. Statistical correlations between firearm deaths and a variety of psychological, economic, social, and political characteristics of states were charted and analysis brought interesting conclusions.

taken from: The Geography of Gun Deaths, published in The Atlantic, January 2011

It may be common assumption that illegal drug use, mental illness and neuroses will entail higher risk for increased gun-related violence. However, the statistics show that it doesn’t figure much. More interestingly, it is the economic factors that figure more significantly in the increase of gun-related violence, like social class hierarchy, poverty, and inequality. On the other hand, improved living conditions and opportunities for creativity with regulation of gun ownership seem to decrease the risk.

Proponents of gun ownership would often argue the case of Switzerland, where most males were conscripted into the army and each household prescribed guns. Switzerland has relatively high gun ownership rates with low crime rates associated with gun violence. However, to relate gun ownership rates with crime rates would be oversimplifying it. What lessens gun-related violence in Switzerland exactly, when apparently even the Swiss themselves consider it dangerous having these firearms at home? The article wasn’t quite clear about it, but it simply states that perhaps “they have little to fight about”. With the good economic profile of the country, most were only concerned with domestic sources of violence. America may have relatively good economic profile, but it definitely has internal and external security threats that it needs to be guarded from, something that Switzerland fortunately does not have.

On the other end of the spectrum is the land of the rising sun, the land virtually rid of guns, Japan. However, cultural differences may factor in more significantly, rather than the gun policies. The Japanese were educated that “no one shall possess firearms or swords” that even the police, at one point, did not carry those. With the rigorous checks the police conducts on each one applying for gun ownership, plus the numerous tests (drug tests, mental fitness exam, and shooting range tests) that need to be administered into and passed by applications, there were less and less gun owners as time passed. Crime rates in Japan associated with gun violence are relatively low.

These are two different countries compared to the United States of America, in many different aspects. But now is the time to try and study their cases and learn from them. More and more people are clamoring for revisions in the present gun ownership policies of the country. It would be insane to tell these people not to speak of such deliberate measures in times of mourning. In fact, all the more that we should talk, discuss, and debate about it now, whether one is arguing for or against gun control. To ignore a clear threat by looking away may be a toddler’s way of coping with any source of stress. But this should not be the case with rational adults. After all, how many more shooting incidents are we going to wait to happen before we take a look at policies that needed changing? We must realize there are just too many people out there unfit to even live responsible lives, let alone handle guns, and yet they have full access to it.

Gun control may not be the sole answer to the increasing gun-related violence in America. But it is a part of the solution.