Saddam doesn't scare me.
We talk about weapons of mass destruction as if the only way to kill a man is with a nuke. We're even willing to go to war to keep them out of the hands of a madman. But we'll protect a different madman's right to own a weapon just as destructive.
For the past two weeks, a clearly psychotic sniper has killed eight people and wounded two in a random string of shootings in the Washington, D.C., area. Police have no suspects and few leads, leaving most people in the area just plain scared.
Count me in.
Threats from foreign fundamentalists I can handle. A ruthless dictator halfway across the globe: no problem. But some wacko with a God complex and a high-powered sniper rifle is a little too much for me. And the worst part is that we're doing nothing about it.
Now I'm not knocking the hard working police investigating the shootings. I've seen the worried looks on their faces showing their sincere concern for everyone in the tri-state area. I believe that they are doing everything to capture this lunatic, and I wish them luck in doing so.
No, we're not doing anything because we're not focusing on one of the key issues here: what purpose do guns serve anyway?
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Second Amendment was written for people who had a 6-foot musket that took two minutes to load so they could hunt dangerous animals and keep the King of England out of their backyards.
Now, the most dangerous animals are tree-eating beetles and walking fish, while the English Prime Minister is our President's lapdog. So much for the good ol' days.
Guns have absolutely no place in today's society. They do not belong in cockpits, in nightstand drawers or in the hands of anyone who is not affiliated with law enforcement. They are anachronistic leftovers from a time when men tamed the wild frontier and kept the Red Coats at bay.
Now I know that not every gun owner is going to go on a killing spree or play William Tell with his/her toddler. I'm sure that there are thousands or millions of responsible gun owners out there who haven't shot innocent people, just as there are plenty of nations with nuclear missiles who haven't launched them.
But just one crazy person — whether he is Saddam or the sniper — should be enough for us to question the value of having these types of weapons.
Since this string of shootings began, people have tried to blame the usual suspects. The media and video games of course got the finger because they help glorify guns, but even Tarot card readers have come under fire since the snipers only message — "Dear Mr. Policeman, I am God" — was written on the Death card from a Tarot deck.
And I'm sure this maniac is an amateur Tarot reader who plays too many video games, just as I'm sure the growing sniper subculture has nothing to do with it.
For the past decade, "precision rifle clubs" have been growing, teaching everyday Joes how to pick off long-range targets. And while one training center operator insists on criminal background checks for all students because "we don't want some knucklehead crazed criminal coming here," it was only a matter of time before some knucklehead crazed criminal got the idea.
Instead of stopping the problem, we buy more guns to protect us from the crazies and anxiously peer out our front windows, wondering if it's safe to go outside.
Mark Broeske is an English education junior. Reach him at mark.broeske@asu.edu.
