The Aurora shootings in July and the recent Empire State Building shooting have Americans in hot debate regarding the sale and control of concealed weapons. It appears that for many, the logical step is to flex our second amendment rights and arm ourselves.
Only three days after the Aurora shooting, the sale of guns drastically increased, with 2,887 approved background checks for residents looking to purchase firearms, according to The Huffington Post. This spike in gun sales is not only occurring in Colorado.
According to the Daily Democrat, the California Department of Justice “predicts a record 725,000 guns sold in the state this year, 100,000 more than last year, and twice as many as five years ago.” An article in Boston’s The Atlantic revealed that women are beginning to arm themselves as ladies nights at local shooting ranges become more popular.
This is disheartening because this kind of attitude doesn’t help the situation. It only pushes us into a collective state of paranoia, making us more distrustful of our fellow man.
What does this say about us as Americans? Our natural response to these types of tragedies is not to try to understand why they are happening or to become educated about them, but to prepare for the worst and be ready to open fire.
Naturally, we have a right to protect ourselves, but do we live in society so dangerous that we need to arm ourselves with deadly weapons to keep peace of mind? The short answer is no, we don’t.
Generally speaking, one can commute to and from school and work and encounter little to no conflict, so where is the motivation to purchase a weapon? Even with shootings becoming unfortunately more common in our society, the need to own weapons seem to stem from irrational fears.
This is not a call for more gun control, or to take the guns away. Old traditions have a tendency to stick around and guns have been part of our culture for hundreds of years, This is, however, a bid for people to think about what they are doing and why.
If people are so afraid of the outside world that they can only feel safe by buying a weapon and using it, then we have bigger problems. It’s not “kill or be killed” out there and we need to remember that.
Reach the columnist at schergos@asu.edu. Follow the columnist on Twitter @ShawnChergorsky.
