Do we see this kind of protest in America? Ever? There isn’t a knifing epidemic here like there is in the UK. Of course, they are more progressive over there, and have long sense stripped their populace of guns.
The lesson here is that even if America were successful in a full expulsion of guns — a sizeable feat in itself, and one that would more likely result in the vulnerability of the innocent to the advantage of criminals — it still wouldn’t rid the country of violence. We need to face the reality that some areas of the country are far more prone to violence because of the people that inhabit those areas. Banning a criminal’s tools of the trade does not an upright citizen make. He will, inevitably, find some other way to accomplish his vile task.
Whitewashing the country of weapons is only the correct answer to violence in a world where people are inherently good and violence is merely an accident given proximity to weapons. Perhaps this is the real issue. It is the prevailing assumption in our society that people are basically good. From this very basic premise flows a whole slew of assumptions, including the idea that when given the opportunity, people choose good.
I completely disagree. People choose good only insofar as they are required to by the rest of society. We see some of the most evil things come from seemingly “good” people when they believe that no one else is watching. It should not be surprising that in a society where the message is increasingly “anything goes” and “don’t hold people to any kind of standard lest ye judge them,” we see the apparent depravity of man increase. Of course, being that we are fully depraved our depravity isn’t truly increasing, but the degree to which we are affected by each others’ depravity is becoming more pronounced. The societal pressure to be an upright, honest person just isn’t there anymore.
What we find, then, is that absolutely everyone cuts corners. Everyone wants “theirs.” The only difference between the criminals being interviewed here and us is that they have admitted it. The rest of us are still in denial.
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