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America, Gun Laws Cannot Control Sick Minds (Elsevier, The Netherlands)
"The
question is whether such tragedies are a result of America's very liberal gun
laws. Up to last Friday, four of the five shootings with the largest number of
fatalities over the last thirty years and caused by 'lone gunmen' took place
outside the United States. ... Sick minds cannot be controlled by laws."
By Robbert de Witt*
Translated By Marion Pini
December 25, 2012
The
Netherlands - Elsevier - Original Article (Dutch)
After every American school massacre, debate flares again:
why isn't gun ownership in America
more restricted?
In a country that has roughly the same number of weapons as inhabitants,
and where half of all households have a Glock,
Beretta or other automatic firearm in the kitchen drawer, the presumption is
that things are bound to frequently go wrong.
Lone gunmen
The list of mass shootings is a long one, and the pain and incomprehension
each time is enormous. Especially when the victims are as young as in Newtown last Friday:
children from 6-10 years old.
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But the question is whether such tragedies are a result of America's
very liberal gun laws. Up to last Friday, four of the five shootings with the
largest number of fatalities over the last thirty years and caused by "lone
gunmen" took place outside the United States.
Posted
by Worldmeets.US
Utoya, Norway (July 2011): 68 dead
Sang-Nam-do,
South Korea (April 1982): 57 dead
Port
Arthur, Australia (April 1996): 35 dead
Virginia
Tech University, USA:
(April 2007): 32 dead
Dunblane, Scotland (March 1996): 17 dead
Random
Stricter gun laws like those in the Netherlands cannot prevent
disturbed young men from suddenly emptying their firearms in fury at innocent
human beings.
Last year Tristan
van der Vlis killed six
shoppers at random in a mall in Alphen aan de Rijn,
after which he committed suicide.
Under control
Just like James Holmes, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Anders Breivik, Tim Kretschmer, Robert Steinhäuser,
Tristan van der Vlis and Matti Juhani Saari,
the shooter in Newtown
prepared for his attack in detail, and he had no extensive criminal record.
Even the restrictions on gun ownership in the state of Connecticut, which are stricter than in almost any other U.S. state,
couldn't prevent the 20-year old from committing this atrocity. Sick minds
cannot be controlled by laws.
*Robbert de Witt is chief of Elsevier's editorial board
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