I've never interviewed people in all my life before (except of my biology teacher when I was 14. We were told to interview somebody from our school staff, and all I can remember is how she told me how she hates being a teacher. She also told me not to include this in the interview). Anyways, recently I found a tumblr written by an australian girl (I have a hidden love for australian girls), explored it a little and clicked "follow". What drew my attention, was the aesthetics of her writing. It's so popular to be hurt by the whole universe, to be depressed and offended by life. This girl was the opposite. I saw her showing the others that it's actually ALRIGHT to be joyful, that it's OK to be happy with what you have. I saw her being a happy post-teenager who tries to get what she can out of life (I have a hidden love for girls who are happy no matter what kind of life they stick to (until it violates other people's rights ^_^)).
So, HERE IS THE LINK (sorry) to the whole interview which we agreed to publish on M.'s brand new blog. And below is the second ~nerdy~ part of it. We'll speak about gun laws a little, if you don't mind.
- Do you believe it's ok, that government has rights to interfere in your life, often leaving you no choice in such things like paying taxes, making abortions, being able to defend yourself with a weapon, doing drugs if you want to without overpaying ridiculously (especially if you need it as a painkiller), being able to sell things and offer all kinds of services you want to without having to get a special license (but of course, being honest with your clients about it) or at least, driving your own car without buckling up if you don't want to (New Hampshire passed this law not so long ago!)?
- Also: what kills people, guns or humans? drugs or bad decisions?
M.: I don’t know a great deal about politics, Australian or international. I’m pretty useless with this stuff. But it does scare me that our governments have so much power, especially when it comes to what we share online. People have been using the term "surveillance state" a whole lot lately. There’s a lot of graffiti where I live, with big colourful slurs saying "the government is watching you" and ‘do you want to live in a surveillance state?’ I don’t know who the good guys are anymore. I disagree with a lot of what has happened in the recent years.
But I can’t say a bad word against the Australian health system, it has saved my life more than once. I am still stumped that abortion is illegal in some places, and I can’t get my head around why gay marriage hasn’t been legalized yet. Is this really still an issue? Are we living in the Stone Age? Male politicians making laws in regards to women’s bodies and our choices? – don’t even get me started.
People kill people. People kill themselves and others with bad decisions. People abuse responsibilities and privileges and end up hurting themselves and those around them. The phrase ‘Everything in moderation’ seems to have been forgotten. And this so called ‘war on drugs’ seems like such a waste of time and money.
I know very little about gun laws. I have shot a gun a few times before. It was really, really fun. You don’t see many guns living in Australia. I’m very anti-gun though, everything I hear on the news in relation to guns comes from America. It feels like every week there is another school shooting. When will they realize that the reason people keep getting shot is because everyone has easy access to a guns? I think their gun laws are an absolute mess over there. People walking around carrying guns every day, like it’s nothing. It’s just bizarre to think about. We don’t have that in Australia. Guns are for police men, hunters and farmers. It’s easier to get a gun than to get health insurance in America. What a mess.
Maki: My belief that the government has no rights to interfere in people’s lives is a pretty strong principle.
You wrote, that the fact that "the government is watching you” scares you. But then you wrote, that the government must disarm all the citizens, only leaving itself armed. Why are you scared of "the government is watching you” thing, then?
M.: Hmmm, I guess I don't watch much TV, or listen to the radio or read the paper. I am mostly in the dark when it comes to this. I only see headlines every now and then. I don't think the government should disarm its citizens, but coming from a country where there are few guns, my instant reaction is 'ban the guns' I guess. In the dream world in my head, citizens shouldn't feel the need to defend themselves. I think about the state of my own country and then imagine how much worse it would be if you added guns to it. Then again, It's just what the media is feeding me and I am not greatly informed on the subject. Guns aren't something you see around here very often.
The whole 'government is watching you' fear really boils down to me being overly-influenced by my friends and the media, and attempting to form my own opinion about something I don't know a great deal about honestly! I have watched a few documentaries, and also the recent Australian Prime Minister's Indonesian phone tapping scandal brought to light the power of government officials. It's not a real concern of mine though! I don't worry that to government is reading my blog or anything (haha).
Maki: You also said, that “It feels like every week there is another school shooting” because they have a freedom to have guns in US. But look, Australia takes the first place for total crime victims. And look where the States are. Because you can’t disarm a criminal. Criminals have always found and will find the ways to kill. And what the governments do is disarm the innocent citizens, making them unable to defend themselves. Not to mention, that all these school massacres are happening in the gun free zones.
M.: I did not know this! I have never really looked into this sort of thing before. It doesn't surprise me at all, Australia is a crazy place, we are an alcohol-fuelled country with a lot of drug and alcohol related crimes. This leads me to believe that the problem isn't guns, it's drunk dick heads. That's a separate issue on its own. I agree, that it is near impossible to disarm a criminal. If someone wants to hurt someone, they will always find a way!
There was another group of statistics that I saw a while ago, which stated that from 2005-2010, almost 3,800 people in the U.S. died from accidental shootings. Based on that, I always thought the less guns, the less people getting hurt by them. Sorry, I'm not really informed on this subject..
Maki: Please, have a look at this article. And I quote:
“States that allow registered citizens to carry concealed weapons have lower crime rates than those that don’t.
True. The 31 states that have “shall issue” laws allowing private citizens to carry concealed weapons have, on average, a 24 percent lower violent crime rate, a 19 percent lower murder rate and a 39 percent lower robbery rate than states that forbid concealed weapons. In fact, the nine states with the lowest violent crime rates are all right-to-carry states. Remarkably, guns are used for self-defense more than 2 million times a year, three to five times the estimated number of violent crimes committed with guns."
P.S. why do you frightened by the people with guns more than by the armed government? Because, no armed man killed as much as the governments have killed. USSR? Germany?
M.: I think my gun fear comes from living in a country where you never see them or hear of them. When Policemen or security guards walk around with guns on the street, I always stop and stare because it is an odd sight, to see a gun.
I know that the US School shootings are rare, and that when one occurs the media flock to it like a bird to a worm. I guess it just saddens me in generally, that children were ever hurt at the hands of a crazy man with a gun. Therefor, like a lot of people, i've developed a distaste for guns based on how sad those few crimes were.
I wish we didn't live in a world where citizens felt the need to be armed, so my view on this is really just based on a dream that I don't think society will ever achieve. Sometimes I try to be unrealistically optimistic about terrible things to make myself feel better about society.
Maki: You look like a good person, and I know, that this is a pretty tricky question. But the things you’ve said about it mean exactly that it’s guns what kill people from your point of view. Ban the guns and it will be ok. But it doesn’t work like this, and I tried to show it to you. What do you think?
M.: I'm not sure, I'm on the fence. The fact that there are so many accidental gun deaths is sad, It's sad that anyone dies from bullets.
On one hand, I wish for guns to be banned and crimes to be lowered but I know this is not the case. On the other hand, I know these statistics and that gun ownership does not instantly equal more criminals. If we could ban people from being assholes that would be great!
I wish that banning guns was the right answer but it probably isn't by the sounds of things. You don't see people committing mass-school-murders with a knife, or a baton. So I guess that's where most of my arguments stem from. There is no stopping a mad-man from murder, It's just interesting that their weapon of choice is usually a gun.
Maki: Thanks a lot for such detailed answers, it means a lot to me! Ok, so my last question is…
You said yourself "I wish that banning guns was the right answer but it probably isn't by the sounds of things” but ended up describing the dream world, as you called it. But we are not living in a dreamworld (?)
M.: Yeah. I feel like the sad reality of the matter is that there is no right answer to this one. Guns will always be around and who's to say whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. At the end of the day, Everyone just needs to look out for each other.
Well, this is my first visit to your blog! But I admire the precious time and effort you put into it, especially into interesting articles you share here!
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