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How Does a Foreigner Look at the American Obsession With Guns

Ashutosh
5 min readAug 14, 2019

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Image by MasterTux from Pixabay

People kill people. Guns don’t.

When I saw this argument being dished out on a particular American television channel after a macabre incident of mass shooting, I, sitting halfway across the world couldn’t believe my eyes. I realized later that a lot of pro-gun Americans use the exact same logic all the time. So we must also pile up weapons of mass murder, and stockpile on nuclear arsenals too, because hey, nuclear bombs don’t kill. People do. Wow!

I wonder if the hyper-capitalistic country has sold its soul to the corporate, to the lobbyists, to the NRA. To me, the above is a devastating argument and is an sign of something seriously rotten inside.

Why doesn’t America get it?

A gun, in this context, is primarily a tool to ensure safety. But for many Americans it is also symbol of power. A toy. A right. A fascination (I was surprised by how average Americans making experimental gun videos on YouTube have access to these advanced killing machines).

It’s sadly a toy for many. Until it kills, that is. The problem is, if you make something that is designed to kill, it will kill someday, and may be not as intended. Isn’t too much deterrence a threat by itself? Why can’t America make the procurement of a gun very difficult, as…

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Ashutosh
Ashutosh

Written by Ashutosh

Tech Enthusiast, Professor, Traveller, Green Army, Tennis Lover. Paradoxically straddling Technology and Literature. Manages @pure_odisha on Instagram.

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