Rising crimes highlights need for gun laws
Furrah Qureshi
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Ed-Op
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I'm not so tyrannical in my views that I'm going to suggest the Second Amendment be repealed, but I absolutely think guns need to be regulated - heavily regulated.
In a world where a disgruntled student can walk onto the Virginia Tech campus with firearms and kill 32 people, and at a time when cities will tolerate nightly murders, there is more than sufficient evidence to change the social norm. Personally, I don't like any activity related to guns - target shooting, hunting, murdering.
I don't think letting fear rule our lives in the guise of trumped up self-defense maxims should mandate us all clamoring for a gun.
Minor disagreements have all too easily escalated into fatal altercations more than once in our city alone. I fear being shot in a Philly alley by some drug lord more than I fear government storm troopers showing up at my door (if they do, oh what a help a handgun would be).
Across the nation, there has been an increase in almost all major cities' crime rates - resulting from a lack of police or an excessive amount of guns? When the statistics change, the laws that combat them should too. Pennsylvania, with more permissive gun laws than other states, holds Philadelphia as the city with the highest murder rate in 2007 so far.
"Well Furrah?" she asked me as I snapped back to attention."Let me guess: You think guns don't kill people; you think people kill people. Let me tell you what I think: I think people with guns kill people."
In a world where a disgruntled student can walk onto the Virginia Tech campus with firearms and kill 32 people, and at a time when cities will tolerate nightly murders, there is more than sufficient evidence to change the social norm. Personally, I don't like any activity related to guns - target shooting, hunting, murdering.
I don't think letting fear rule our lives in the guise of trumped up self-defense maxims should mandate us all clamoring for a gun.
Minor disagreements have all too easily escalated into fatal altercations more than once in our city alone. I fear being shot in a Philly alley by some drug lord more than I fear government storm troopers showing up at my door (if they do, oh what a help a handgun would be).
Across the nation, there has been an increase in almost all major cities' crime rates - resulting from a lack of police or an excessive amount of guns? When the statistics change, the laws that combat them should too. Pennsylvania, with more permissive gun laws than other states, holds Philadelphia as the city with the highest murder rate in 2007 so far.
"Well Furrah?" she asked me as I snapped back to attention."Let me guess: You think guns don't kill people; you think people kill people. Let me tell you what I think: I think people with guns kill people."
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 6
Z
posted 10/22/07 @ 12:04 PM EST
I think the old adage comes to mind, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."
If it wasn't a gun that killed a person, it would have been a knife, a car, a random piece of furniture, gravity, poison, etc. (Continued…)
Grahm
posted 10/25/07 @ 10:47 PM EST
That's why she said "People with Guns kill People." Did you even read the whole article?
Shaun
posted 10/27/07 @ 12:40 AM EST
How do you feel about the First Amendment? Do you think it's ok for our government to erode rights granted by the Constitution via legislation? What if we regulated what's printed in student newspapers because they are too provocative?
Like it or not, the Second Amendment gives us a basic right handed down by the Founding Fathers. (Continued…)
Ian Magill
posted 10/29/07 @ 1:32 PM EST
"Across the nation, there has been an increase in almost all major cities' crime rates".
False.
Violent crime in New York city has decreased 75% in the last twelve years and the murder rate in 2005 was at its lowest level since 1963. (Continued…)
Luftvier
posted 10/31/07 @ 12:36 AM EST
Gun laws already exist.
Criminals, by definition, disobey the law.
Making gun ownership by private, law abiding citizens, more difficult would be absurd and do nothing to curtail the problem. (Continued…)
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