Friday 9 November 2018

"Guns don't kill people,

people using guns kill people".
Well, if you don't have a gun then you can't use it to shoot someone.
This morning I have had a work email to say that someone I was doing some work for won't be going to do what he planned to do for another week or so. He's going to a funeral instead. His neighbour's son was killed. He was killed by a complete stranger with a gun - while trying to save the life of someone else.
    "He was such a great kid."
That great kid had just started medical school. He was going to be a doctor. He had dreams of following in his neighbour's footsteps, the man for whom I was doing some work.
I never met. I didn't even know about him until I read the email this morning. I've never met the doctor who asked me for some help and it is almost certain I never will.
I don't know most of the people who ask for help. I will never meet them. All I have is some small sense of what they are like from their requests.  They come in all shapes and sizes of personality but they all have one thing in common. Every one of them is going to do something for other people on a voluntary basis. 
Over the years I have known aid workers to die. Some of them go into incredibly dangerous situations. They know they are risking their lives. It is a risk they are prepared to take. Some of them feel they have nothing to lose. There are all sorts of complex reasons why people feel compelled to do such things.
And the young man who was killed yesterday, killed by a complete stranger for no reason that makes sense was one of those people. He may well have been in his own home country where suburbia is supposed to be safe from such things but he would have known there was a huge risk involved in what he did.  He went to help anyway. His country has lost someone who had the potential to save lives.
When will America learn that people with guns can kill people?

2 comments:

kayT said...

You know, America is not the only place random people are killed by crazy people or evil people. In fact, even in America it's not always done with guns. Sometimes people blow stuff up, with bombs made from recipes found on line. Maybe it would make more sense to try to address the notion of WHY people kill random strangers. Maybe?

Anonymous said...

Of course America is not the only place where random people are killed by crazy or evil people but the "right to bear arms" doesn't help the situation. We are told that you need a gun - to protect yourself from people who have guns. If you don't have a gun you can't kill someone by shooting them. Mass murder is much easier with a gun in suburbia. Peter Johnson