Don't Do It!

A commission in Finland is recommending that all automatic pistols be banned and confiscated. The reason given is that two mass shootings have been committed by criminals wielding such arms.

Don't do it, folks!

First off, how will that help? It is folly to believe that a moral issue can be turned into an equipment issue. The real problem here is that two people wanted to kill many others. An autopistol is merely a means to that end. The true weapon is the human mind. A person who wants to kill will not be stopped by any equipment shortage. Some of the proof is in the fact that a person who is bent on killing is already in violation of laws against assault and murder. If a person is willing to murder, they will be willing to obtain illegal weapons.

Let's suppose that the world suddenly had no guns, then. Bombs can be made easily. Propane and a match are sufficient. Knives, bows, match head pipe bombs, fertilizer-fuel bombs, fuel-air bombs, improvised firearms/projectile launchers, swords, axes, machetes, fire, sledges, and mauls are all lethal and expedient weapons. So are cars and airplanes. It is not possible to remove the means of a killer to kill. You have to convince the killer not to kill or stop them through dissuasion, detention, or destruction. Those are the only ways.

Is that not enough? What about the Tokyo subway attacks? The Khobar Towers? The World Trade Center? How many times have vehicles been turned into weapons?

You will not gain security by giving up freedoms. Finland is a very safe nation and I applaud any effort to make it more so. However, banning automatic pistols is folly because it will not have the intended effect. I suggest efforts similar to what the U.S. Air Force has done to reduce suicide. Suicide and mass murder have something in common. Both are acts where the people who commit them will not be dissuaded by any rule or law. The USAF has pushed the idea that people should look out for those around them and watch for signs. Another thing that murderers and those who commit suicide have in common is that their actions almost never happen in a vacuum. The warning signs are almost always there. How many of these mass shooters just up and killed a bunch of people one day after they just decided to, for no reason at all? I will not say that it never happens, but I have never seen it.

Don't do it! If liberty is restricted for the sake of security, both are lost, moral issues are not solved with the addition or removal of equipment.