WTF!
We're talking about what's going on now, not ancient history. If you go down that path, you could blame everything on Africa, from where everyone is said to have descended.
If you think US culture hasn't influenced most other countries throughout the world in recent times, you are sadly deluded.
Come on, get a grip.
RAWR! (Now, do some research.
)
Back on topic a little bit, the old cliche "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" is about as true as it gets.
We as human beings are sentient creatures, capable of making rational, concise decisions about our actions, further, we have the capability to rationalize the consequences. So, if that's the case, and it is in 99.09% of the world's population (Taking into account for those with mental instability, or those with disorders affecting sentient, rational thought and emotion.), then one might be inclined to ask the inevitable question: "Then why do people kill people?"
My AP Contemporary World teacher, Bill Soff (A truly sensational man to debate with, as well as carry on any intellectual conversation with.), put a question to the class "What is or was the cause of every conflict, minor and major; past, present, and future, that has or ever will take place?" The answer was obvious to some, less obvious to others, and when he announced the "right" answer, quoted because on a technical basis it is truly a hyposthesis, there came murmers from without the room, nothing major, more like murmers of "D'oh!" The answer, is "money and property."
A fewdecided to play devils advocate, and post a rebuttal, as was customary in this class. It was interesting that everyone had a new circumstance, and another would recite a proof in favour of the Theory. The consensus became that the theory, is fact, and was so accepted and adopted within the classroom.
So, keeping all that in mind, I answer the previous question presented: "Then why do people kill people?" The answer can be traced back to money. Now, one must ask himself "Do guns truly attribute to the problem?" The answer, is no. It may simplify and hasten the end result, but guns themselves are not the cause of hate and murder.
One could argue that if guns were to be outlawed, and every single one destroyed, and for the sake of argument no single person or entity possesses a gun under any circumstance, that the rate of crime and the number of murders every year would decline to nearly nothing. The reality is that no, it would not for any extended period of time become non-existent, or even get better.
Guns only simplify the act, but ther was just as much crime and murder before guns, as there is after the emergence of guns. Kings and queens have been usurped by cords of silk in their sleep, poisoned by their morning tea. Children have been drowned by their mothers. Men and women burned alive. And yet we are worried about guns. Why? Because we need a scapegoat, a place to place the blame for the hatred in the world, a place to place the blame for the failures we are for allowing our world to become this corrupted, abysmal place that it is.
Sure, you'll sit there and blame it on your ancestors, or the people who came before you. You'll brush it off as not your problem, say that it's our instinct. But it is nurture, not nature. It is how and what we teach our children, what they see, and ultimately, we are what they become. They learn their language from us, they learn to walk by watching others do it, children embody us and our actions, they are at the most crucial point in their lives for learning.
It's at this poin that they learn how to react to certain situations. Childrens who witness violence, live in a violent household, or are themselves victems of violence, then they themselves are at a greater chance of adopting a violent behaviour.
So no, guns are not killing people, society and people are killing people. Sure you can post a thousand rebuttals, and I can post a thousand corralaries. But it will end with the same result.
-David
