I am writing this critique on an article from the Austin Chronicle called "Point Austin:Shoot first...Think Later" written by Micheal King. In this article King is discussing the danger of current gun laws on society. He is using examples of recent shootings in Texas and other parts of the country to try and persuade the reader that some stricter gun laws will somehow eliminate most of the gun violence here in the US. He discusses a recent incident at the Lone Star College in Houston, TX in which two men got into an argument and eventually one of the men began firing a semi-automatic weapon. He fired ten shots, one hit his opponent in the back of the leg and he also shot and injured two bystanders. The gun was purchased legally by the man, but he was illegally carrying the weapon. The man did have prior convictions but were only misdemeanor charges.
King is definitely aiming this article towards a more liberal audience. He is trying to say we need to work on a comfortable medium in which everyone benefits and everyone will be comfortable but I think we all know that's impossible, especially with this subject. He tries to explain how discomforting it is that the high number of guns in this country is mainly due to most gun owners owning multiple weapons. I do not see how that could possibly be discomforting, they got the count because those guns are obviously on file and people with multiple weapons doesn't mean they grew more hands and arms to have the ability to fire them all at once anyway. He says we need to conduct background checks, which is a wonderful idea and probably why we do it already. He also discusses that we need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and sums it up with "make it a bit harder for criminals to buy guns". The key word here is criminals... King has the understanding that by partially disarming working, law abiding citizens will "make it a bit harder on criminals". Criminals take advantage of the system and the citizens who abide by it. By making things harder on average civilians, you make things easier on criminals. For example drugs, money, work, etc... They are criminals, they are going to do whatever they want to do as long as it helps them get by. When criminals have the opportunity to take advantage of a normal citizen, ten out of ten times they are going to try their best to do so. If you went downtown today and told all of the crackheads they should stop because that stuffs illegal, here in the real world that would not change a thing.
Other than being a writer, King does not have much credibility on this topic. He does attempt to provide some evidence, excuse me, which is all bullshit. He provides numbers of all gun deaths after Sandy Hook until now and he is considering all of those deaths "violent crimes". Although his numbers include every single death involving a gun. So his statistics include suicide, police using deadly force and average citizens defending themselves.
I do not agree with King on his article. I think it would be an amazing thing if we could somehow get guns out of the hands of criminals and nuts but it is just simply impossible. The bottom line is if people want to do something, and they are crazy there's no stopping them. It's easier to buy a gun on the street than it is at academy and partially disarming law abiding citizens who do not enjoy people breaking into their homes will simply not do the job.
Here is the link to Kings Article
Point Austin: Shoot First...Think Later
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