Guns kill! And every year the number of innocent people killed by guns increases significantly. Yet, our American cousins continue to put stiff resistance to curbing gun sales. Why?
The following dialogue is between two chimpanzees named Abu and Mabu: I use A and M to distinguish the speaker.
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A: Humans have a fascination with guns. They have tiny ones that they can hide on their bodies, and guns of all sizes and shapes. But they all have one thing in common: they're deadly!
M: It reminds me of the discussion we had on tobacco. Tobacco smoking kills; and guns kill. I'm inclined to conclude that humans have a fascination with killing, period!
A: No other ape has guns, why do they have them?
M: Guns were initially used to kill predatory animals and game animals for food. Then some one must have said, "Why don't we use them to kill people?" And that's exactly what they did. First they went after other tribes, to settle old scores, and after they were done with them, they went after undesirables within their own tribes.
A: Who were the undesirables?
M: Anyone they didn't like: people of different skin colour, religious belief or ideology. At times they even kill indiscriminately. It's so easy; they seemingly do it for pleasure.
A: That's so disgustingly sick! I don't want to hear any more of it.
M: You're right. Some humans are also abhorred by it. They're concerned that it's become a vicious circle that they can't stop. It appears that the more people get killed, the more people buy guns to defend themselves, which in turn causes more people to get killed.
A: Is it that they can't stop it, or don't want to?
M: In theory it can be stopped, but in reality it can't. Look at it from the poor gun-makers' perspective. They live in a different world. They're so high up in the hierarchy the air they breathe is rarefied. How does anybody expect them to understand what's happening in the real world?
A: Let me guess, every day someone gets killed by a gun, they're held responsible, and that happens several times a day. Every time someone is killed or injured from guns there is an outcry from people who want to ban them. Pressure must be mounting on them from all the accusations and bad publicity they get. But what can the poor fellas do?
M: If they were weak humans, they would succumb to the moral pressure and stop selling gunsindiscriminately, but they're not. Moreover, if it wasn't for their unfailing respectand support for law and order, they would never again produce another gun.
A: I see. The poor fellas must be really conflicted!
M: Their only comfort is in knowing that guns don't kill people: it's people that kill people. After all, it's not their fault that every time someone is murdered more people rush out to buy guns, and they have to produce more just to meet demand!
A: It must really hurt them to watch the crime scenes on their big boxes, knowing that someone used one of their guns to kill a bunch of innocent schoolchildren in class. To maintain their sanity, they comfort themselves by repeating their mantra: only people kill people, not guns.
M: What outstanding citizens they are! Most people in their situation would have abdicated their responsibilities to law and order long ago and shutdown their factories, but not these hardworking, courageous and outstanding patriots. They go on producing despite the agonizing pain and suffering that afflicts them daily.
A: No! They're not turncoats! They're heroes: protectors of the people! And if innocent children die because others use their guns to kill them, that's just the price of doing business.
M: Rather than shutting down their factories to avoid the agonizing pain they feel from the murders and resulting outcries, these upstanding citizens shut out the news and bad press and keep on manufacturing!
A: Shush! These are outstanding people you're talking about. They're the ones that control everything and are beyond reproach! Let humans kill each other. It's not the gun makers' fault!
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The U.S. is the only country in the world where every man, woman and child has at least one gun: an average of 1.1 guns per person. Yemen, long considered a vipers' nest by Americans, has an average of 0.5 guns per person: less than half of the American average! And what about Colombia? That war-torn, rebel-infested, drug-traffic country has an average of five guns per one hundred people. Yet, Americans are concerned about traveling there!
In 2015, 372 mass shootings occurred in the U.S., killing 475 people and wounding 1,870. A mass shooting is a single incident that kills or injures four or more people, including the attacker.
In the same year, there were 64 school shootings, including some when nobody was hurt.
In total, more than 13,000 Americans were killed and more than 26,000 injured by firearms, in 2015.
Regulations to control the sale of arms, which would reduce the bloodshed on American streets, would hurt the profits of the gun manufacturers. Despite the Herculean efforts of well-meaning organized groups pushing for gun-control legislation, it's a losing battle. The armaments industry is the biggest in the country and it controls government. Period! Their leaders are la crème de la crème of American society, and they've become callous to bloodshed because, after all, that's the nature of their business!
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The Crazy Apes: A Satire of Human Society
RandomA baby gorilla asks his father, "What are humans?" The father replies, "They are monkeys without hair, who believe they are masters of everything around them. They build shelters that go up to the sky. Their ego and greed know no limits and take fro...
