The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: Viewpoints

Katie Mikos First-year print journalism student

In light of all that happened at Virginia Tech, I can't help but dwell on how easy it was for the killer to get a gun. As many of you know, Seung-Hui Cho entered a local gun store just two months before the shootings and purchased his murder weapon. A man with documented mental problems and recorded anti-social behavior was able to choose the gun of his choice, pay for it and walk out the same day with it in his possession.

Now that the tragedy has occurred, we can evaluate the startling evidence and point fingers all we want, but it will not change the damage that has already happened.

For things to be changed, something terrible has to happen to our country. The Sept. 11,2001 attacks had to happen for us to realize that we are not invincible, and just like everyone else, are targets for attack. An angry and deranged student had to go on a killing spree that is officially recorded as the worst gun-related massacre in U.S. history for legislators to stop and think, "Hmm. Maybe we need to pay a little more attention to who we sell deadly weapons to."

According to the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, the number of deaths caused by firearms in the United States is more than in Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Scotland, England and Whales combined. All of these countries have very strict gun laws, and all get along just fine without their citizens having a pistol in their bedside drawer. No one in these countries really needs to worry about having someone hold them at gunpoint, because it hardly ever happens.

In England, the police do not even carry guns - they get by with a nightstick and a heavy flashlight. The guns are just not a necessity.

I understand this may seem a bit extreme to residents of our gun-friendly country. I also realize that the United States is considerably larger than these countries, but regardless, the fact still remains that the people in these countries function just fine without guns.

The fact also remains that if we had stricter laws regarding firearms, Seung-Hui Cho would not have been able to commit the violent crime that cost America the lives of 32 bright and upcoming individuals; people who were somebody's brother, sister, fiancée and best friend.

Who knows what this man may have done differently if he had not had access to a gun. He may still have killed, but the thought of him killing that many people that quickly would have been virtually impossible.

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