A boat filled to the brim with Syrian refugees beaches onto the shore of the picturesque island of Lesbos, in Greece. The refugees scramble up the rocky shoreline and into the arms of waiting Red Cross volunteers, who give bottles to wailing infants and food to the grotesquely malnourished men, women and children. These migrants have little but the clothes on their back, but yet they feel as safe as a baby bird nestled up to its mother for warmth. They face incredible oppression in their native countries, under the rule of terrorists such as ISIS, as well as the murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad. In their native countries, human freedoms were stifled and basic human rights were violated.
However, let’s not make the mistake of believing …show more content…
This dichotomy is apparent in the gun control debate, an extremely controversial issue that has polarized the nation. The recent mass shootings in Oregon and Connecticut have reignited the calls for gun control in the United States. Prominent politicians such as President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have demanded Congressional action to limit guns, and in California, Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a 2016 ballot initiative to impose statewide gun control (Holwerk). Even though over one hundred thousand people are shot each year by guns, no action is taken by legislators in Congress to address the problem (“There Are Too Many Victims of Gun Violence”). In an article entitled “What we talk about when we talk about guns”, author David Holwerk of the San Francisco Chronicle argues that we debate guns on a philosophical level, of freedoms versus security. Polls seem to show that Holwerk’s analysis is correct, and in a Pew Research poll conducted in 2014, 52% of Americans said it was more important to protect gun rights, while 46% preferred stricter controls on guns. All this data would seem to convince the reader that Americans value their freedoms immensely, even above apparent safety. But to many, guns represent safety, and provide us with the sense of security we desperately crave. According to the police data cited on the website “Freedom Outpost”, it can take on average 10 minutes for police to arrive after being called, while the average criminal/victim interaction is 90 seconds. We have an innate desire to protect ourselves and our families, and guns give us a sense of security that no police force could
However, let’s not make the mistake of believing …show more content…
This dichotomy is apparent in the gun control debate, an extremely controversial issue that has polarized the nation. The recent mass shootings in Oregon and Connecticut have reignited the calls for gun control in the United States. Prominent politicians such as President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have demanded Congressional action to limit guns, and in California, Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a 2016 ballot initiative to impose statewide gun control (Holwerk). Even though over one hundred thousand people are shot each year by guns, no action is taken by legislators in Congress to address the problem (“There Are Too Many Victims of Gun Violence”). In an article entitled “What we talk about when we talk about guns”, author David Holwerk of the San Francisco Chronicle argues that we debate guns on a philosophical level, of freedoms versus security. Polls seem to show that Holwerk’s analysis is correct, and in a Pew Research poll conducted in 2014, 52% of Americans said it was more important to protect gun rights, while 46% preferred stricter controls on guns. All this data would seem to convince the reader that Americans value their freedoms immensely, even above apparent safety. But to many, guns represent safety, and provide us with the sense of security we desperately crave. According to the police data cited on the website “Freedom Outpost”, it can take on average 10 minutes for police to arrive after being called, while the average criminal/victim interaction is 90 seconds. We have an innate desire to protect ourselves and our families, and guns give us a sense of security that no police force could