Genocide and Gun Control

The Armenian Genocide is a very volatile topic that has been discussed everywhere from modern diplomacy to humanitarian conventions. In class, we were given background events in the Ottoman Empire that led up to the Genocide. There were several causes for the anger that allowed this atrocity to happen. The Ottomans were losing battle after battle all over the edges of their vast empire, and the nation had shrunk considerably since its prime. The Turks did not want to admit their weakness, so they started blaming all of the ethnic groups they subjugated. This was especially bad after the Balkan Wars since a huge wave of fear and distrust of Christians swept the Ottoman Empire. The unstable political climate of the Ottoman Empire did not help. Control of the government was seized in a coup d'etat by the Young Turks from the sultan, and the Committee of Unity and Progress seized the government from the Young Turks shortly after. I believe that much of the anger that caused the Armenian Genocide was due to the CUP's incompetence. For example, the minister of defense failed miserably at war, losing to the mediocre Russian army by invading over a mountain. If the Ottomans focused more on their own people and problems instead of forcing down the Armenians to make themselves feel better, not as many Armenians would have defected to the Russian army and the climate before the genocide would never have happened.

The gun control issues movie continued with a look at proposed gun control laws and possible limits and regulations on civilian owned arms. One popular idea is to ban the sales of any fully automatic weapon, but this does not make any sense. The idea that someone could shoot up a crowd to kill thirty people with thirty bullets in a clip is flawed. If someone can kill with an assault rifle, then someone can kill with a large clip handgun or a wide spread shotgun. If gun laws are to be stricter, then all types of guns would need to be limited. The way to do this is to limit who can buy a gun by enforcing stricter tests to see who is capable of owning one. As an extreme example, a diagnosed psychopath should not be able to buy a gun from a large retailer. Laws aimed at the people rather than the weapons will be more effective, although the constitutionality of these laws may be questionable.