When we watched that video in class about Cody Wilson
wanting to make free the code to print 3D guns to any and all with 3D printing
capabilities, all I could think the whole time was “Murica!” which, according
to Urban Dictionary, “is generally seen as a derogatory yet humorous way to
describe most Americans: fat, lazy, gunwielding, war loving, horse riding,
saloon fighting, beer drinking, sex wanting or etc”. Or, in layman terms, the
stereotypical American as seen from an international perspective. Searching
“Murica” on google images makes me want to do a blog post with literally just
all of the pictures that come up, over half of which include some reference to
guns and democracy while the other half is just about us all being fat and
lazy. Seen below is the picture that I believe 100% represents ‘Murica because
in this prime example of art, you have both the obese aspect and the facets
that make it up (motor scooter, flat tires, fast food and oxygen tank) as well
as the patriotism and democracy between the flag, the eagle on his hat and, of
course, the machine gun rapid firing bullets.
Which
then brings me on to my next topic related to Cody Wilson and his version of
the American Dream: the free allowance of guns and his worst nightmare: gun
control. According to a Huff Po article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/us-guns-statistics-outlier_n_2331892.html),
the US is one of only two countries (out of 28 surveyed) that consider civilian
ownership of a firearm as a basic right. The other country is Yemen but
apparently Yemen has begun clamping down on civilian guns. That’s right, no UK,
no Germany, no Japan, no China, none of the other developed countries that
we’re considered relatively equal to but Yemen. I bet most people don’t even
know where Yemen is. The US also has more guns than any other nation (40
percent of the worlds total), despite us making up such a small percentage of
the world population (4.5 percent of world population). This ratio of
overabundance also stands true with the US vs global prison population and
military spending. Those are just the ones that I already knew about but I’m
entirely certain that more discrepancies exist.
Sticking
with Cody Wilson, his reasoning behind his actions essentially boiled down to
“I can, so I will” which is just a bad way to think about things. He felt that
we shouldn’t restrict ourselves for whatever reason even though the gun that he
was trying to 3D print (AR-15) is a very dangerous gun that is often used in
mass shootings because of its capabilities. One could go so far as to
extrapolate his thinking pattern to “well we should just rape and murder all
the women and children as we please because we can so why restrict ourselves
from doing it?”
The real question is why do we even
need these weapons? Admittedly I don’t know much about guns so I don’t know
what the difference is between this gun and any other standard gun used for
hunting or etc. BUT, I do know that this is the gun used in the Sandy Hook
shooting which is what brought around the whole gun control debate at the time.
I also know that on the exact same day, there was a similar attack on elementary
school kids in China (Chenpeng Village Primary School stabbing) done by another
mentally ill man. The main difference? Our tragedy was with bullets, theirs
with a knife. 0 deaths, and 24 non-fatal injuries versus 28 deaths and 2
non-fatal injuries. The fact of the matter is, there is always going to be
violent crime. We’re only doing ourselves a disfavor allowing it to be
committed by mentally unstable citizens who get their hands on serious weapons
with potential for a lot of harm. Cody Wilson is doing more harm than good,
he’s not helping those he wants to help because most of them won’t take
advantage of his offer. But you can bet criminals will (exemplified by finding
a 3D printed gun for sale through TOR when I was doing deep web research).
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/09/19/u-s-has-more-guns-and-gun-deaths-than-any-other-country-study-finds/
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