By showing the effects of said weapon. When I was young, I didn't really understand what a gun did to a living thing until I went hunting once. After that, I've never really had the urge to shoot a gun again. Own one, yes. I would like to have a nice, functional replica of the Angel Arms Colt .45 Long from Trigun.Lord Mhoram wrote:I agree. And what better way to ingrain respect for life than to make weaponry that takes life away as difficult to acquire as possible?
And as Avatar pointed out with Switzerland: Near total gun ownership (which, if I recall correctly, is due to the fact that every adult is in the Swiss Militia, or maybe the army. I can't remember at the moment.)
The problem, I think, with my generation and gun violence, is so many people have become desensitised to the effects of violence, or come to idealise violence (in re: Gangster Culture.) I was an army brat, was brought up to believe that Violence is a shameful last resort, and when it comes to violence, to not kill unless you absolutely have to (Of course, my grandpa also told me, "When in doubt, empty the magazine.")
Personally, if we're going to force mandatory laws and educations on people, I think that all public school children should be required to go through a gun safety course. Or that parents should be required to put their children through such a course. I remember when I took Driver's Ed, the thing that stuck with me the most wasn't the road test, or the written, or the discussion and questions. It was the 6 something hours I spent in a room with about 10 other 16 to 18 year olds looking at the most gruesome pictures of traffic fatalities you can imagine. The one in particular that haunts me is someone, one can't tell if it's a cop or an emt, or who exactly, literally scraping up someone's brain off the road. I've never been in a collision that I was at fault for.
The Gun Education and Violence problem, I think, is neatly mirrored by the Teen Pregnancy/Sex Education problem. Teenagers are going to have sex. You cannot stop them from doing it. You just can't. You can't keep them locked up and under strict surveillance 24/7/52. So of course, when you don't give them access to sex education on how to prevent pregancy, or on STDs and how to prevent infection, or access to birth control methods, of course they're going to get pregnant. The number of friends I had growing up who now have children, who went to schools were sex education was not taught is almost 100%. I, on the other hand, who did have sex ed, and whose parents did, at length, give 'the talk,' and who, though I never had sex till I was 19, and since I was about 14 carried on me, at all times, atleast one condom, have never even had to take a girl to the clinic for an abortion that was mine, nor had to worry about an STD.
Likewise, Children who are not taught about guns, how to respect the weapon, and what it can and will do if you do not pay attention for even a moment, who are not taught how to safely handle them, who are not taught when you can and when you cannot aim it at a living thing, will of course, if guns are in the house, find them and kill/maim someone/themself, or will aquire guns, if they have no respect for life, and use them.
It's all about education. Sadly, in modern America, parent's don't want to have to raise their children. They want the State, and the Tele, and the Video Games to do it for them. And then they're shocked with their kids are either stupid, or not 'well behaved.'
I'm pretty sure that the courts have ruled in atleast narrow scope for specific purposes that Reproduction is not a right. I wish they'd expand it.
