At least 15 drug traffickers were killed in a shootout over the past weekend in Tijuana, Mexico, which was breathless reported on the front page of the LA Times. Over that same weekend, the Times's blog The Lede points out:
As foreign and shocking as the Tijuana shootout may seem, its death toll was nearly matched in an American city on the opposite side of the country: Chicago. Last Monday, the police tallied nine homicides in 36 shootings from Friday night to Monday morning, and then two days later, five people were killed in a single attack.
I get on my soapbox after the jump.
It's interesting to me that American popular culture likes to perceive and stereotype Mexico (and most other regions of this world actually) as a wild outpost of gun toting mustached outlaws, criminals, and drug runners, while conversely guns and our individual right to own guns of all manners in America are something to be held sacred. Otherwise, so the mythos goes, we'd be deprived of the ability to both feed our families and protect them from the common burglar. Also our guns in the closet and in our night stands are the last defense against the inevitable fascist coup led by the World Bank, the United Nations and the Illuminati.
It continues to blow my mind that some people strongly advocate a policy of MORE guns and access to guns to resolve our country's violence. The owner of the online gun shop that sold the tools of destruction, guns to Seung-Hui Cho and ammunition to Steve Kazmierczak, that would ultimately result in the massacre of a total of 37 students and faculty, believes that the solution is for more people ought to carry guns. He is holding a two week sale so everyone "can protect themselves and their loved ones." While plainly opportunistic, it should be remembered that his position is mirrored by many influential and distinguished individuals and groups in this country. Because ultimately it's about profit (the US government leads the world in arms sales), except it's wrapped in an inviolable cloak of patriotism and nativist mythology.
It's not that our country is more violent than other countries. It's just that more people have access to and possess guns in the US. Consequently the violence that occurs in our country results in a much more lethal and deadly ending. Contrary to the NRA and Co.'s justifications, I think the statistics bear out that in the history of our nation, guns have murdered more often than protect.
And this will be my stupid throwaway spurious statement: If we can legislate things such as what professional athletes inject into their body, then we can certainly legislate our "right" to guns.
