Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Virginia Tech and Guns

After the horrendous violence at Virginia Tech yesterday, I began to question what pushes a person over the edge. In the last 20 years or so, we seem to have had a great increase in the number of people who go on a shooting spree, particularly young people in places of education. And it seems that it happens in the United States much more frequently than any other country (except for in Israel, but that's a separate issue entirely). So what are we doing differently?

A few international notables have started to blame this on our culture of guns. The first part of this I think this deals more with access to weaponry, which definitely contributes to this. I mean, how did this kid get such a gun? Now, I am a firm supporter of the 2nd amendment, but guns are too frequently getting into the hands of the wrong people. I mean, if you can walk into a gun shop and obtain a gun by filling out a questionaire, anybody can. For those gun right activists, what is the problem with background checks before issuing a gun? And why can't we administer a psychological screening of potential gun users?

Secondly, I think we do have a culture that overemphasizes guns. Take one look at the movies/music/video games that most americans watch/listen to/play. Your average urban youth grows up admiring gangsta rappers, spending hours on video manhunt games, and seeing a movie character take the world into his hands with a gun. I'm not making the argument that these cause violent behavior, because obviously the majority of people who partake in these media outlets are not themselves violent. Yet for someone with psychological troubles, this overtly prevalent attitude that guns solve problems may influence their chosen expression of their mental instability.

What do you think about this? And if our culture of guns does in fact contribute to increased violence, what can we do about it?

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Keeping quiet?

What do you do when you don't like a friend or family member's significant other? This problem has been on my mind a lot lately. Perhaps I have high standards, but sometimes I think people in my life would greatly benefit from looking elsewhere. Yet there's no good way to bring this up, nor is it usually appropriate to give unsolicited advise. I realize that everyone makes their own decisions, but at a certain point people get too wrapped up in their relationships to see things from an objective perspective. At what point do you stop trusting that they'll figure it out for themselves, and tell them yourself?

From a worst case scenario, say you wait until they get engaged. If you don't speak up, they could be making the biggest mistake of their life, yet if you do speak up and they don't listen, they and their soon-to-be spouse will resent you forever, and your relationship will be severely compromised. If you speak up sooner, you risk alienating a friend/family member and obstructing their ability to find out for themselves.

None of these options seem like particularly good options. I mean, for me, it's a pretty strong signal if most of my friends and family didn't like the guy I was seeing. If you've ever hid asshole-ish things your significant other has done to you from your friend and family network, you know what I'm talking about. You're trying to only show them the good, so they like him/her, because you care about what they think. Not that you need universal acceptance to continue a relationship, but if those whose opinions you trust don't like the person, well, it makes you question.

Anyhow, what's your strategy? Say something or keep quiet? And if it's the former, when and how do you bring it up?