YAIC Weekly

By Amity Hsieh, YAIC Weekly

January 27, 2013

“Don’t Shoot!”

He walked down the hall ;face twisted with anger. 

The black ghost came out  from nowhere. 

He was panting, as if spellbound upon hearing others yelling, 

“Don’t shoot!”

BOOM BOOM BOOM…The rifle seemed to be out of control. Numerous

bullets took 26 lives away within a couple of minutes, but left more to suffer, to mourn, and to doubt the security system after the mass shooting took place in Sandy Hook Elementary School.

www.olivecocomag.com

On December 14, 2012, aside the lush meadow and giggles from the

classrooms, Adam Lanza massacred 20 innocent angels in their first grade and 6 members of the staff who attempted to protect kids but to no avail. People could not help thinking,

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“Who is Adam Lanza?”,

“Is he really rotten to the core?” or

“How am I supposed to do when dropping my kid off at the school every

morning just to picture a guy with 23-caliber Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle

harming my baby in any possible minute?”

In fact, the President of the United States of America called for a change and

immediate actions taken by Congress on January 16, 2013. He laid three

claims to Congress, referring them to common sense measures.

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First, Congress should demand a general background check for anyone who tries to buy a weapon. To prevent wrong people from getting hands on their guns, the check is fairly compulsory for protecting all the citizens and the rights of responsible buyers and sellers.

Second, Congress should reinstate a ban on weapons mainly used in military style, and a 10-round limit for magazines with the aim of preventing the perpetrator from wreaking such great damage.                                      
                                                                              

                                                                                                    

In the final, President Obama appealed to Congress for help, rather than

hindrance for the sake of its job. The speech was moderately persuasive and

moving when President Obama revealed his sorrow and tribute to the

victims.

Here I would like to expand a little more on Rep. Steve Stockman’s view toward President Obama’s statement on the 16^th last week as well as my own perspective.

Republican Steve Stockman claimed, following the president’s press

conference that “Gun bands and anti-gun laws have always led to one thing – more gun violence.”

He stated that banning allows more people to increase

their intent to purchase weapons. Unfortunately, no evidence or research can

justify the causation yet.

My opinion is rather simple –

More gun laws are not equivalent to more gun violence.

Here are my reasons.

First, based on a criminological theory“The Broken Windows Theory” which illustrates crime and anti-social behavior are affected by the environment, I believe widespread guns give rise to possibility of gun violence. The theory took from an example as follow.

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Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows.

Derived the concept from the theory, to keep the environment in a well-established condition may diminish serious crime.With fewer guns in the market and more gun laws prohibiting wrong people from owning weapons, I believe a safer environment can be constructed.

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If one walks into Wall Mart in the United States, one would likely to see gun placed on the shelves along with other products. For most of the Americans, they are certainly used to this scene; however, some Asians like me, still kept my mouth open upon seeing it. Of course the cultural difference matters. But what matters the most is the gun law in Taiwan makes me more aware of the existence of guns.If guns are easily bought by anyone, anywhere without any stricter check, the violence might just be inevitable since the alarming environment already brims with a variety of weapons.

Second, in International Relations, the security dilemma happens when one

and its neighbor or other countries arm themselves one by one for the sake of self-protection.

The same dilemma is faced in the United States. The gun flood occurs when one tries to buy the weapon to safeguard oneself while the

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others buy too upon seeing one purchase. Therefore, the society packed with guns where people live in might as well begin to lose trust, and become more unstable and unsafe; same as the reason shown above.

The dilemma is the fear seen as a whole.

Last but not least, let us talk about what have gone wrong with our society

when shootings take place commonly. Below is the history of deadly US mass shootings (BBC, 2012) in the last 30 years.

1984: James Oliver Huberty shoots dead 21 people at a McDonald's in California

        1986: Postal worker Pat Sherrill kills 14 people at post office in Oklahoma

        1991: George Hennard kills 23 people at a cafeteria in Texas

1999: Two students at Columbine high school kill 13 and injure 20, before

killing themselves

        2007: A student kills 32 and injures dozens more at Virginia Tech university

        2009: 13 people are killed in a mass shooting at Fort Hood military base in

Texas

        2012: James Holmes kills 12 people and injures 58 at a cinema in Aurora,

Colorado

And you bet, 2012: Adam Lenza kills 28 people (himself included) and injures 2 in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

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What is wrong with the education that we keep teaching that harm is

forbidden, that killing is irreversible and unforgivable? What is the problem

with the law……?

There are so many whys and whats going on and on every single time after

such tragedy occurs. The problem is that the new pain arrives often earlier

when we are still struggling with our former pain. The new does

not necessarily clear away the old. And the same stories hurt as many hearts

as always. Perhaps as we seek for the external needs and promises, we need

to reflect back on ourselves internally at the same time –

“What can we do besides the law enforcement, the regulations, and all the

external resolutions?”

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We need to raise our moral standard by teaching and promoting.

We need to care more about the society, and let the anguish vanish with compassion and more understandings. And finally, we need to cherish. As Robert Brault put, “Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were big things.”

I shall also quote from him,

“Let us cherish, for one day as we look back, we would realize

they were somehow big.”

Do not lose before you start to cherish.

This article is dedicated to the kids, members of the staff and the rest of the broken hearts.

I am Amity Hsieh. This is YAIC Weekly.

For more information

Broken windows theory (2013, January last modified). WIKIPEDIA. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

Farley, R., &Kiely, E. (2013, January 24). Fact check: GOP response to Obama gun plan. USA TODAY.Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/01/24/fact-check-republicans-obama-gun-plan/1862183/

Remarks by the President and the Vice President on Gun Violence.(2013, January).The White House.Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/16/remarks-president-and-vice-president-gun-violence

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (2013, January last modified).WIKIPEDIA.Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting

Unknown author. (2012, December 15). Connecticut school shooting: Children among 27 killed. BBC NEWS US&CANADA. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20730717

Unknown author ( 2012, December 14) OC Headlines/Breaking News: Mass shooting at Newton, CT Elemnetary School, 27 dead. Retrieved from http://www.olivecocomag.com/oc-headlines-breaking-news-prayers-go-out-to-newton-ct-where-gunman-has-killed-18-children/

Unknown author (2012, December 15) Heroes of Newtown: Sandy Hook principal died lunging at gunman, others shielded students with their bodies. Retrieved from http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/15/the-heroes-of-newtown-sandy-hook-elementary-staff-died-protecting-students/

Kozak, B. (2011, September 8) Gun Training and the Story of Monkey No.3. Retrieved from http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/09/brad-kozak/gun-training-and-the-story-of-monkey-no-3/

Unknown author (2011, October 3) Broken Windows/ Swift and Certain. Retrieved from http://laguardianangels.org/broken-windows-swift-and-certain/

Larson, E. (2012, December 20) 'Demand a Plan' Campaign Calls for Gun Reform in Wake of Newtown.
Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2012/12/19/demand-a-plan/

Dixon, V. E. (2012, December 21) The idolatry of the gun. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/the-idolatry-of-the-gun/2012/12/21/c9a3a340-4bc5-11e2-a6a6-aabac85e8036_blog.html

Malone, S. & Cooney, P. (2012, December 15) Quiet Connecticut town rocked by mass school shooting. Retrieved from http://www.firstpost.com/world/quiet-connecticut-town-rocked-by-mass-school-shooting-558253.html

Lvsiak, M., Morales, M., Thompson, T., Chapman, B., Parascandola, R., Straw, J., Cavaliere, V. & Mcshane, L. (2012, December 14/15) Updated: 26 dead, including 20 kids. in Newtown. Conn., elementary school shooting: Gunman Adam Lanza, 20, kills teacher mom in her Newtown home, drives her car to her school and opened fire before killing self. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/deadly-shooting-reported-conn-elementary-school-article-1.1220164