Tragedy in Tucson

(May be published in the Orbit also)

On Saturday January 8th, 2011, Gabrielle Giffords was holding her first “Congress on Your Corner” of the year at the Safeway Supermarket in northwest Tucson. This meeting with the Congresswomen was setup in order to give her constituents an opportunity to voice their opinions and for Giffords to interact with her voters of her district; she has recently been elected to a third term in the House of Representatives. During this meeting, Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old college dropout, shot 19 people with a semiautomatic Glock pistol that combined with an expanded magazine allowed him to shoot 33 rounds. This left 6 dead and 13 injured, notably the quickly recovering congresswoman Giffords, and the now deceased Federal Court Judge John M. Roll and 9 year old Christina Green who was born on 9/11/01. While there are few known causes for this shooting rampage by Loughner at this time, the Sheriff of Pima County Clarence Dupnik has deemed political vitriol of the caustic right wing media personalities as the cause of the tragedy.
What troubles many in this tragedy is the accessibility of guns by a 22 year old who has been called by many to be a very troubled young man. Jared Loughner was able to purchase a semiautomatic weapon and combine it with an extended magazine of 33 bullets, which allowed the shooter to get off more shots without having to reload. The Constitution of the United States, specifically the Bill of Rights allows for the right to bear arms, “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” Another pertinent fact in this matter is that the civilian population of the United States, according to a survey from 2007, is the most heavily armed in the world, with the U.S. population owning 270 million firearms, which is approximately 9 guns for every 10 citizens.

As the country saw this tragedy unfold on copious news outlets, I began to question the basic second amendment rights. While I understand the fact that one is allowed to carry a concealed weapon accordng to their rights, and this was listed in the Bill of Rights as a reaction to British tyranny, but what is the point of owning a gun? An even better question, what do normal citizens, people such as ourselves need with extra large magazines and assault weapons for public sale?
When one buys a gun, one figures they may have a stronger sense of security about themselves. But at the end of the day, guns are not toys and they have horrible consequences. The implications other than being safe in owning a gun is to use it. Hunting guns and rifles excluded, the normal citizen does not require a gun because it only ends with horrific violence. The accessibility of guns in the United States has led to numerous tragedies close to home and throughout the country.
We must learn from the tragedies that have occurred recently ie; the death of a Woburn police officer in a robbery and the attempted political assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.