John Lott Recalls Tragic Shooting to Set Record Straight
The American mainstream media likes to point out the waves of shootings that have occurred in the United States over recent decades, noting that most other countries don’t have this problem. But John Lott, writing for FoxNews, sets the record straight, writing that of the top five worst school shootings in the world, only one actually occurred in the United States:
“The very worst one occurred in a high school in Erfurt, Germany in 2002, where 18 were killed. The second worst took place in Dunblane, Scotland in 1996, where 16 kindergarteners and their teacher were shot. The third worst high school attack, with 15 murdered, happened in Winnenden, Germany. The fourth worst shooting was in the U.S. – Columbine High School in 1999, leaving 13 killed. The fifth worst school related murder spree, with 11 murdered, occurred in Emsdetten, Germany.”
Now any event of this type is a true tragedy, but Lott makes his point. Germany had three of the vive worst shootings – and yet has extremely strict gun laws compared to the United States. Thus tighter gun laws, which take away our Second Amendment rights, aren’t going to keep anyone safer.
International Media Believes U.S. Fueling Illegal Arms Trade
Turn on the news of conflicts around the world and you’re likely to see the Soviet designed AK-47 time and time again. But surprisingly the United States, not the former Soviet Union, now gets the lion’s share of the blame for supplying the world with illegal firearms.
In an editorial posted by Jamaica Gleaner News on recent violence in Haiti the writers called out the United States for supplying guns to Mexican cartels. Fortunately, at least, the article didn’t see the United States in this alone:
Jamaica and her CARICOM partners should invite gun manufacturing countries such as the United States, China and Russia to a summit on small arms
This is an interesting opinion, but would Russia care – should Russia even care – about the weapons that were sold during the Cold War by the former Soviet Union? And what would a summit really mean?
Firing Back: Toy Guns Remain Popular in Other Parts of the World
Currently I’m on a working vacation that is taking me to some interesting parts of the world, and recently I was in Cairo, Egypt and Kusadasi, Turkey. In addition to the usual tourist sights, I was taken back by visions of boys (and a couple of girls) playing with very realistic toy guns. While even replica firearms have come under fire in the United States there seems to be no such fear of these toys, which is odd considering that real threat of violence.
The reason I bring this up is that it shows that toy guns shouldn’t really be feared. Yes, there have been some tragic examples where the toys were mistaken for the real thing. But we have become so fearful of guns in the United States that it has made the sight of obvious toys items that need to be feared. This in turn means that boys (and girls) don’t experience this play – and while some would cheer this fact – it also means that a part of childhood is stolen. Yes, guns used by soldiers in war are a horrible thing, but for most of recorded history children have played these games.
As with fighting monsters and battling evil, playing cowboys or cops & robbers is just play. It is something that is part of childhood. The irony also is that Turkey is a nation that has had a military history that is colorful, yet for the last several hundred years one without a successful military tradition. The United States by contrast is a nation that has had a long and successful military history, and yet the liberal element continues to fear guns. Let’s just hope we don’t go the way of the Ottoman Empire, and become a second rate power.
