Guns Do Not Make Free
And so it happened again, yet again.
As the rest of the world, I am shocked by what has happened in Connecticut. Yet another massacre caused by guns. I am convinced that if the shooter had had more difficulties to get his hands on guns, this would not have happened the way it did.
One cannot completely prevent people from running amok. In Japan there was this guy in Osaka who massacred 8 children with a kitchen knife.
Something like that will always happen. But it is quite a different caliber to kill someone with a knife than with a gun. With a knife you have to get up close and touch your victim, with a gun there is no need for that.
The pro-gun people say that it’s the American way of life and that it’s “freedom” to carry a gun. In my humble opinion freedom is something else entirely.
Just last night I enjoyed freedom. I went with a friend for dinner and drinks in downtown Tokyo. I then enjoyed the freedom of walking around downtown Tokyo at midnight and feeling safe. I boarded the public transport system at midnight feeling safe. I rode the train home feeling safe amongst loads of people who are sleeping safely on the subway, talking, jabbing away at their smart phones in peace and safety. I had the freedom to bicycle home at one in the morning without a care in the world, feeling safe. That is freedom, that is quality of life. Not being able to have an instrument of murder in my home.
This freedom, this feeling of being safe is one of the many reasons why I am staying in Japan, despite earthquakes, because I feel freer here than anywhere else I have been to yet because I can go wherever I want, whenever I want.
I will never forget my first time in L.A. I took a stroll at Venice beach and there was this crazy dude dancing around an upended blue bucket. My initial thought and fear was that he has a gun under that bucket and if he feels like it he’ll topple his bucket, pick up his gun and shoot into the crowd.
If there was a crazy dude at a Japanese beach dancing around an upended bucket I would presume he has a bottle of beer or whatever below the bucket, not a gun. I did not feel free when I walked along Venice beach. I felt afraid, spooked and hunted.
There are mad people everywhere, and if you really want to get your hands on guns, you will be able to obtain them one way or the other, as has sadly been proven in Norway last year by Mr. Breivik. So yes, there are mad people in all countries and every corner of the world, but if you give them easy access to guns you destroy the freedom of the millions of others around them. I wonder how many more massacres the people of the US have to endure until finally someone controls gun possession? Guns do not make free, guns let you live in fear. My deepest condolences to the parents who lost their little children yesterday.
