Fun in Social Psychology

My professor of this class is a Democrat, which is neither here nor there. Today we talked about aggression. He started out his lecture by talking about guns. I'll preface my writings by saying that I think both sides of the gun control debate are a little overly simplistic. Are there a lot of guns that are misused in the US? Absolutely. Are there unnecessary deaths? Absolutely. Has there been some success with gun control in other countries? Yes, but there have been warnings for us, too. On the other hand, are there countries that have widespread gun ownership and extremely low levels of gun crime? Absolutely! Norway and Switzerland have among the lowest crime rates (of any kind) in the world.

Lessons can be learned from these two examples of gun ownership. One thing, first of all, must be understood: a gun is a tool and it can't kill people. People kill people. A gun is inanimate and can do nothing by itself. They understand that very well in these two countries. Switzerland has mandatory military service for all men, and therefore has a very well-trained population. If I were a criminal, I would be most worried about those with guns than those without. Additionally, I would be very deterred from committing a crime if the likelihood of the other person having a gun was great, especially if they know how to use it.

The second amendment isn't going away. We are going to have guns. I propose mandatory training on firearms. In many places we have mandatory sex ed., the purpose being to limit unsafe sex. Why in the world don't we try to limit unsafe gun use and ownership when far more people die from misuse of guns than from misuse of sex? I'm just saying.