Talk of the Town

"The cell phones in the pockets of the dead students were still ringing when we were told to ask why," --Adam Gopnik. As the first line of an essay in the New Yorker, it didn't take me long to realize that what I was about to read was going to be a highly controversial topic-- one that is at the top of the priority list these days in America.

In this first line, Gopnik is referring to the shootings at Virginia Tech. He goes on to mention how the shooter had a mental illness, yet was able to buy very powerful guns anyway. Gun control has been a problem in the U.S. for many years now, but it seems to me that it keeps getting worse. I agree with Gopnik in his standpoint that it is insane that someone with a mental illness could easily get ahold of guns whose primary purpose is to kill people.

Many people with mental illnesses can't even get driver's licenses in America, how is it that they can buy guns? There had to have been a severe lack of questioning or inquiry performed by the company selling the guns in order for this to happen. Tightening guns laws doesn't always work, there will always be someone who can figure out a way to get around the law. However, it does make sense to at least try to make it more difficult for civilians to purchase such lethal weapons.

In several different countries, such as Paris, Canada, and Scotland, gun control laws have been increased after deadly shootings. In all of these places, the number of shootings or deaths due to shootings has greatly decreased. This fact alone proves that it would be well worth it for the U.S. to tighten gun control laws in order to protect innocent citizens.

Judging by the comments made by Susan Sontag about the government and the way our country is run, I think it is safe to say that Susan Sontag is very anti-Bush. Sontag mentions that the terrorist attacks on September 11 were not "cowardly attacks on civilization", but rather an attack on the world's "self-proclaimed superpower".

Are we really the superpower? Currently we are at war and are in a major economic recession. I don't know who proclaimed the United States as a superpower, but I think that our days of being a superpower are long gone. Many countries that used to be weak and lacking resources are catching up quickly, and several have probably bypassed us in this area.

The problem is that most people don't realize this. They don't realize it because (as Sontag mentions), the government only tells the people what they want to hear. When you watch the national news at night, you don't hear about all the other countries that are becoming rich or are gaining new intelligence. You hear about the pirates that are ruining Somalia, or anything else that is going wrong with the world.

It may be depressing to hear about what is really going on in the world, and where we really stand. However, I think that it would be beneficial for people to actually know these things, instead of being fed bologna by the politicians. Maybe if someone besides the government knew what was going on in the world, there would be more of an effort to help our country out, so that we actually could be the superpower again.