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I really didn't want to get into this but I guess I am going to.None of the following is politically feasible, but I will say it anyway (and, pardon, more politics than I usually speak about):
Tax all existing registered guns at an extremely high rate (e.g., $10,000 per year per registered weapon), use the money for the mental health tests, background checks and other gun licensing procedures as well as police budgets.
Mental health testing: One must affirmatively prove sanity and lack of violent tendencies/criminal record with a high standard of proof, not merely a likelihood of its absence.
Ban all sales, gifts or other transfers of automatic and semi-automatic weapons (bump stocks etc.) immediately, including ammo, and make their continued possession illegal. I assume there are records of who purchased them. There is not guarantee that people will not hide their weapons, but treat continued possession like heroin.
But it will never happen. One reason I live in Japan.
... and I repeat, it is not because the Japanese are so peaceful. They have the same kind of violent individuals here as in the US school shootings and Las Vegas. They just can't get guns easily. (Among the worst cases was just last year, in which a deranged individual killed 19 mentally disabled people in a hospital. However, although he used a knife, they were sitting ducks completely incapable of defending themselves. He wanted to kill hundreds.).
Gassho, J
First, full disclosure: I am a gun owner. I live in rural New Mexico and have 6 horses and two dogs. We have Coyotes (not too much trouble), Bobcats, and the rare but occasional mountain lion. Much worse are packs of stray dogs that will often attack with no provocation. I have had to put animals down and those are awful days. Most often this is because an animal is sick rather than a threat. And even though making the choice to put an animal down is awful, I am also not going to let an animal with rabies continue on down the road and infect others.
I lived in rural Texas for a long time. The local town near me didn't have a police station let alone animal control. If you called the state police to say you had a rabid animal and could they please come - they wouldn't be happy with you. So almost everyone in that part of the world had guns. They also were not well off, they were scraping to get by. It is incredibly difficult to run a family farm/ranch in this day and age. A bunch of my friends were essentially day labors on ranches. They would load up their horses and go work gathering cattle, doctoring, whatever was needed. And it doesn't pay well. On a lot of this places feral hogs are a big problem. They are way bigger than you thing, and dangerous. They also can tear up a field like you wouldn't believe. Sometimes their job was to go and hunt them. Going out on the range without a gun was not safe.
I also have in-laws in Minnesota who hunt to put meat on the families tables.
If you were to tax these people $10,000 to own firearms it would devastate them - they just don't have that kind of money. They would be forced to give up tools that they use to protect themselves and put food on their tables. Or, more likely, they would hide their guns and the would be in violation of the law. So you have taken law abiding citizens and but them between a rock and a hard place.
I agree that there is something of real significance going on in our country that needs to be addressed. But I worry because a lot of the anti-gun messaging contains a lot of incorrect information. I think a lot of proposals come from well meaning people - but people who don't have any experience with firearms. Or experience with situations where a firearm is appropriate. A lot of time, energy and resources are being spent on proposals that don't make any sense if you understands how firearms work.
Even more I worry that people think that by banning guns somehow the issue goes away, and I don't think that is the case. There is something going on that is much deeper than access to firearms. And removing access to firearms may well let people feel like they have done something when the underlying issues remain, and will continue to fester and get worse. I worry that the focus on guns distracts us from harder, complex issues that need to be looked at, but which are ignored because we are focusing on firearms.
There was a time in our country where every hardware store and firearms and there were no restrictions on purchase - and we didn't have these problems. Firearms were more normalized. But as the average person has had less contact with them they have become fetishized and seen as a devise of power rather than a common tool.
Again, I agree that something needs to be done. But I think this is a complex issue without simple answers. I would encourage anyone who has strong feelings about this should also educate themselves about firearms so that they can have an informed opinion as to what what the appropriate steps would be to address help address these issues. And I would ask them to try to look deeply at this issue and try to understand all of the contributing factors.
Gassho, Shinshi
SaT-LaH空道 心志 Kudo Shinshi
There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha way.
-Dogen
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Rich
MUHYO
無 (MU, Emptiness) and 氷 (HYO, Ice) ... Emptiness Ice ...
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Shinshi’s post highlights one of the reasons there is such a divide in the U.S. As a transplant from growing up in an urban/suburban area to ruraI as an adult, I can say there are some huge lifestyle differences, now living in ever closer proximity to each other. Indeed where I live we are expected to have our own means to deal with wild animals (my family is probably one of very few without firearms so we would need to call in neighbors in an emergency). However, my friends in Canada tell me that they are able to still have their shotguns in rural areas and on farms, while still managing gun control that works in more populated areas. It can and has been done.
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH
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There’s been lots of talk here in the US about arming teachers, which is a monumentally terrible idea. My fantasy is that we pass a budget that allots money for nationwide school arsenals, staff training and retraining, gun safes, etc. Then, when we are sure we’re willing to spend the money to help the problem, we instead hire school psychologists, guidance counselors who actually have time to counsel, school social workers and case managers, school nurses, additional teachers to reduce class size, and most importantly student classes in emotional intelligence and executive thinking. Sure we need to plan for a tragic exception, but only this type of support will make those tragedies exceptions instead of commonplace. We should be talking about true prevention, not about how to kill armed kids who want to kill other kids by having armed adults kill them.
My two cents, as someone with a wife who is a school administrator and three kids in public school.
Dan (Shinsho)
Sat today
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空道 心志 Kudo Shinshi
There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha way.
-Dogen
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Yes, growing up on a farm in Canada I can say this is true. It is not illegal to own guns in Canada. However, they are not readily available. You have to be over a certain age (I think it's 18) and take a firearm safety course to own a shotgun. There are more rules and regulations to obtaining a handgun, and other weapons are illegal here. It's also illegal to carry a weapon, unless it is required by law at your job.
Also, thank you Jundo and everyone who shared. This is a heartbreaking thing, I just cannot imagine what those parents are going through.
Gassho,
Joyo
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Hi Shinshi ,
Thanks for sharing. I live on a city of 200k but 10 miles out in every direction there is wild life and the next big city is 2 hours away. Feral hogs are very very dangerous and there are a lot of them around here and they are multiplying quickly. Every farmer has tools of the trade.
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Just to be clear (and putting aside the question of hunting from a Buddhist point of view ... hunting was always part of life for people of old Asia for their food), there are hunting and sports weapons in Japan. There is a feral pig problem for the farmers around here too. They have shotguns and small rifles, and the people who have them (farmers and sports people with pistols) show a reason to have them when purchasing. They must file a report each year on how the weapon is being maintained.
But does one need an AK-47 to kill a hog? Bumpstock? Hollow-point bullets?
The following is now the typical US answer by some to this kind of tragedy, by the way. I do miss living in Florida ...
Shooting boosts bill to allow guns in Florida schools
The deadly shooting at a Florida high school has given new life to a proposal in the state Legislature to end a ban on guns in schools.
A bill to allow a principal to designate someone to carry firearms on public school campuses will be heard Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Gassho, J
SatTodayLAHLast edited by Jundo; 02-18-2018, 08:09 AM.ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLEComment
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I know some professors that were very intimidated by this.
Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_ , LAHLast edited by Jishin; 02-18-2018, 01:35 AM.Comment
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Just in case I wasn't clear I am not advocating just leaving things as they are. I would have banned bump stocks years ago as an example. I am just trying to say that this is complicated and what might seem like a simple solution might not be. I think that some real changes need to be made but I worry that just changing gun laws won't address other real problems (not that I am sure what they are). And that the fight over gun legislation might well distract us from looking at other issues that need to be addressed.
One of the reasons I didn't want to get into this is that it all a bit too close to home. We had a high school shooting just down the road from me in Aztec NM in Dec. It didn't get the same level of press, maybe because only two students died, maybe because we are out here in the boonies. The local police did a fantastic job and were at the school in two minutes. I don't know the families but I have friends who do. The impact on a community is very traumatic.
I want to see things change, I don't want any parent to experience this. I am just worried that some meaningless gun legislation will be passed - everyone will think the problem is solved - and move on. While real problems still exist and haven't been addressed. And the legislation will have served no purpose because it was driven by emotion and not by facts.
Gassho, Shinshi
SaT-LaH空道 心志 Kudo Shinshi
There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha way.
-Dogen
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With all due respect it feels certain facts are very clear. As Jundo says, you don't need an AK-47 to kill a hog and unless you're in fear that a whole posse
of individuals with evil intent to murder are about to descend on your property/person you don't need that kind of ammunition to protect your self/family.
There are no doubt a multitude of problems that need addressing but how many wake up calls are required before some carefully structured/thought out gun
legislation is introduced.
Surely what we learn from Buddhism is that mind habits can be altered. Feeling the necessity to own a gun for protection is a mind habit - culturally produced - and can be changed. There is no intrinsic/essential necessity to own a weapon of mass destruction. I totally understand the whole food/animal predator argument - not commenting on that. But there must be better ways of protection one's person if in danger - maybe stun guns as often used by the police?
Just my thoughts,
Gassho
Jinyo
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