“Breaking news! One side shooting another with guns and rockets! We go now to live feed.”
Last year Canada ranked 15th in military spending worldwide, combined with the other 14 countries it amounted to $1.271 trillion US. The United States spent the most, $612.5 billion. It accounted for over nine per cent of their budget.
Is this acceptable in a civilized world?
Here in Canada handguns and assault rifles are illegal and we don’t produce nuclear weapons. What better country to call for a global ban on all weapon manufacture and sale?
You may call me naïve or a dreamer and I won’t be offended, but I think a world without weapons would be a better place.
Imagine two drunks in a parking lot after last call, having a fistfight over who has the biggest ego. They will likely need medical assistance, probably survive and possibly go to work the next day. Now, add weapons: not only is one or both dead, but their loved ones armed with the same will be tempted to exact brutal vengeance – an eye for an eye, until the whole world is blind. Look out, innocent bystanders.
Conflict in the world will never go away and some problems seem unsolvable. Only one thing is for sure, ruling by the weapon never works out in the long run.
How will we keep the “bad guys” in line without superior firepower? Look around, we aren’t keeping them in line now, so what’s the difference?
Let us compare two riots: the recent one(s) in Missouri, and the Vancouver one in 2011. The first was caused by police shooting an 18-year-old dead and is much larger in scope, the second caused by hopes dying and not one shot was fired even though police had guns. Both are tragedies in my opinion.
So what is the solution? The 1,200 plus charges police have laid so far in Vancouver rely heavily on photographic evidence. Since 2011 the number of phone-puters has skyrocketed. A possible police slogan could be “shoot helpies not guns.” Two drunks in a parking lot, or a young water polo player attempting to set fire to a police car might think twice if they knew they'd end up on the news.
How about offering a reward of two center ice seats to next season’s Canuck games raffled off between the million photobusts? Over the years the amount of overt crime would decrease.
If the resources needed to make weapons were redirected into diplomacy, health care, infrastructure, food production, non-polluting energy, habitat resuscitation, or ‘’insert your favourite cause here’’... it would be positive.
The best possible outcome when you produce weapons is that they work and people die.
When trying to curb drug abuse, authorities not only focus on the users, they go after the suppliers as well. Case in point: Mr. Marc Emery. The weapon users of the world make the press, but the suppliers are let off the hook.
Anytime there's a shooting, arrest the gunman, but charge the manufacturers and distributors as well, even extradite them to countries where their merchandise is illegally obtained. The arms race is a marathon whose finish line consists of the runner-up’s downed body.
