The Right to Bear Arms is America’s Hunger Games
by Shannon Lee Layland
In the science fiction books and movies “The Hunger Games”, young “tributes” are selected from rebellious areas to fight to the death on television. The purpose of the “Games” is to remind the rebels of the horrible deeds committed by their ancestors during the last uprising. This reminder is meant to help secure the power of the current government and the quality of life of those in power.
On Friday morning, The United States of America randomly chose 10 innocent Americans to sacrifice their lives for our right to bear arms. We choose to live in a free society. We choose to live in a society where almost anyone can purchase weapons that can kill en masse. Thus, it is impossible to stop mass murder in a free society where almost anyone can legally purchase a gun or illegally acquire a gun because there are more than 300,000,000 guns in circulation. Therefore, we as a society have accepted this inevitable loss of life because a majority of us want the right to bear arms. We believe the right to bear arms is an essential cornerstone of American democracy, personal security and quality of life.
There is, however, an important difference between The Hunger Games and random gun deaths in America. The tributes in the movie know they may be killed. In America, the random, unsuspecting victims of gun violence don’t have that advantage. You can be murdered at your church, at school or attending a concert. Children die from random bullets in what should be the safety of their own homes – sometimes by guns already in the home. You can choose to not drive a car and risk death on the highway. You can choose to eat well and exercise to reduce your chances of death from disease. In America, you only need to be alive to risk being a victim of random gun violence.
Almost 12,000 people died (non-suicide) in the US from gun violence in 2013. The US has a population of 320 million. The odds of winning the Mega-Million lottery are 1 in 260 million. The next time to you run off to the convenience store to buy a lottery ticket or send your children off to school, ask yourself one question.
“Do I feel lucky?”
“Well, do ya, punk?”
Shannon Lee Layland was born and raised in suburbs of Kansas City, KS. He lives with his wife Katja and Chihuahua Ocean in southern Germany via Los Angeles. His professional career has ranged from basketball, computer science, and biology to biotech entrepreneurship. He received his BA in computer science from MidAmerica Nazarene University and his MBA from the Technical University of Munich, yet he is somehow torn between being a Jayhawk and a Bruin.