It seems like common sense, but sadly one of the "great" nations of the world still cannot get the simple things right. The shootings in Charleston last night did not shock me in the slightest. Waking up to tweets about the church massacre made me shrug. I realise how horrible it is to lose someone unexpectedly and to be murdered in any manner is abhorrent, but massacres in America are now the norm. You expect events like these to happen once in a generation. Unfortunately these things can happen on occasion, but there's a reason why they are more frequent in the USA.
Gun violence in America is part of everyday life. USA is one of the most dangerous country when it comes to deaths by firearms. For all of Fox News' anti-Mexico agenda, the US is right behind their southern neighbours on this list. Yet, many Americans stand behind the old saying "guns don't kill people, people do". This saying has some truth to it. Yes, a person chooses to pull the trigger, but murder will always exist. Therefore if someone wants to kill someone, giving them a gun only increases the chance of death. As we saw with the Beltway sniper attacks, you could be walking down the street and the next thing you have a bullet through your head. In the UK, it is very difficult to get a hold of a gun, making knife crime more worrying. Although many people still die in the UK thanks to knife crime, it is very rare to hear of a massacre. In fact since the 1996 Dunblane shootings - which caused tighter regulations on guns - there have only been two massacres: one being the 7/7 bombings and one being a gun massacre. Two massacres in 19 years looks minuscule in comparison to the 14 since Barack Obama took office - more than two massacres a year.
Obama stated today that "this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries" and he's right. Guns only make it easier to kill someone and control on guns is a must for a developed nation like America. The fact that so many people in the country are pro-gun is baffling. The number one argument for gun enthusiasts is:
"Most people are responsible gun owners and for every bad guy with a gun, there's 100 good guys with a gun."
It's sad how some people still believe in that statement. I am not stating that all gun owners are mad caps who are irresponsible, but when random civilians cause acts of terror it shows that there is no way of preventing this. Yes, there are some obvious cases where you could see it coming from a mile, but there are also cases - like the one today with Dylann Roof - where it was not so obvious. As for the 100 good guys with a gun, they were missing from this massacre like many others.
We shouldn't live in fear of each other. We shouldn't buy a gun to protect ourselves from others - what does that say about us as a society? The fact that a gun's main use is a distrust says more about a nation than actually having a gun.
When the US gets over their obsession with all things barrels and triggers, maybe we will see real reform that can not only change the way the country looks at fire arms, but it could also save lives.
Do you think that guns should be illegal? Do you think they still serve a purpose in 2015? Leave a comment and let me know your opinion.
Thursday 18 June 2015
Saturday 6 June 2015
"Orange Fest" Needs to March out of Scotland
1691 saw the Spanish inquisition forcibly baptise over 200 Xuetas, a group of people who descended from Spanish Jews. When some tried to flee the conversion, they were burned alive at the stake. 37 of them to be precise. Although history views the Spanish inquisitions as a successful campaign for those it benefited, it also shows the Spanish as a ruthless army who colonised a lot of Central and South America. One of their main reasons for conquering the Americas was to force their religion on the people there. According to records, the Spanish inquisition arrested around 150,000 people with between 2,000 and 5,000 being executed - around one in 50.
In other words - this was a brutal regime which focused on taking land and forcing religion, something that the majority of the world would be appalled by today. The Spanish do not celebrate these inquisitions and why should they? It was 1691 - well over 300 years ago. Yet some still celebrate similar events in Scotland.
1690 saw the Battle of the Boyne near Drogheda in Ireland. The battle saw the Protestant William of Orange defeat James II, bringing the end of the Catholic monarchy. To this day, this was considered a huge shift in power in the days where religion had a massive role in politics and kings had real power so it was a big deal.
However, that doesn't mean that events like the Battle of the Boyne should be celebrated. Not only is the celebration irrelevant to the way Scotland is ran today, but it celebrates how one type of Christians were discriminated against right up until the 1990s. My own father was asked on job interviews in the eighties what school he went to. If he said "Notre Dame" (a Catholic school) he would never get the job. It was a way of finding out what your religion was. The Orange walks - and Orange Fest which will take place in Glasgow today - celebrate everything Protestant about the UK today. Catholics were second class citizens in the same way that women were and still are. To celebrate the supremacy of a people which caused the suffering of others because of their religion is disgusting and has no place anywhere in the world.
Even if you argue the point of free speech - which can still be deemed offensive - you cannot excuse how much money these marches cost local councils. In 2011, there were 300 marches in Glasgow alone. In 2009, three Orange walks in July cost Glasgow City Council nearly £900,000. Surely money can be spent on things more important than a small minority hanging on to the past whilst trying to defend it as "heritage". If we all hung on to our heritage, we'd be conquering the world again and still have poorhouses. It's time for change and you won't get change if you let dinosaurs waste tax payers' money on their little marches. What have they got to celebrate? What have they got to prove?
It may be too late to protest against the Orange Fest that is in Glasgow today, but please take this post into consideration and protest at any marches that take place in the future.
Cheers.
Got an opinion on Orange Fest? Leave a comment below.
Twitter: @mick_demarco
 |
| No one celebrates the tortures dealt out by the Spanish Inquisition |
In other words - this was a brutal regime which focused on taking land and forcing religion, something that the majority of the world would be appalled by today. The Spanish do not celebrate these inquisitions and why should they? It was 1691 - well over 300 years ago. Yet some still celebrate similar events in Scotland.
1690 saw the Battle of the Boyne near Drogheda in Ireland. The battle saw the Protestant William of Orange defeat James II, bringing the end of the Catholic monarchy. To this day, this was considered a huge shift in power in the days where religion had a massive role in politics and kings had real power so it was a big deal.
 |
| William of Orange led his army to victory at the Battle of the Boyne |
However, that doesn't mean that events like the Battle of the Boyne should be celebrated. Not only is the celebration irrelevant to the way Scotland is ran today, but it celebrates how one type of Christians were discriminated against right up until the 1990s. My own father was asked on job interviews in the eighties what school he went to. If he said "Notre Dame" (a Catholic school) he would never get the job. It was a way of finding out what your religion was. The Orange walks - and Orange Fest which will take place in Glasgow today - celebrate everything Protestant about the UK today. Catholics were second class citizens in the same way that women were and still are. To celebrate the supremacy of a people which caused the suffering of others because of their religion is disgusting and has no place anywhere in the world.
 |
| These marches also cause a lot of violence |
Even if you argue the point of free speech - which can still be deemed offensive - you cannot excuse how much money these marches cost local councils. In 2011, there were 300 marches in Glasgow alone. In 2009, three Orange walks in July cost Glasgow City Council nearly £900,000. Surely money can be spent on things more important than a small minority hanging on to the past whilst trying to defend it as "heritage". If we all hung on to our heritage, we'd be conquering the world again and still have poorhouses. It's time for change and you won't get change if you let dinosaurs waste tax payers' money on their little marches. What have they got to celebrate? What have they got to prove?
It may be too late to protest against the Orange Fest that is in Glasgow today, but please take this post into consideration and protest at any marches that take place in the future.
Cheers.
Got an opinion on Orange Fest? Leave a comment below.
Twitter: @mick_demarco
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)