A tragedy took place in the Parkland city of Florida, USA, on February 14. 19-year-old Nicholas Cruz entered the school with a rifle, killed 17 people, wounded dozens of people, perhaps in revenge for being expelled from the school for violating disciplinary rules.
How can we prevent or at least reduce the number of such crimes? The first thing that came to my mind is that it is necessary to restrict the sale of firearms. But yesterday it turned out that the logic of US President Donald Trump is just the opposite. According to him, we should also distribute weapons to teachers, teach them how to use the weapon, so that they can resist during any such attack.
Can you imagine what battles would occur between armed schoolchildren and armed teachers if there are inadequate people among them? And of course, such people exist in any country and in all societies. And in that “attack-defense” fight, the winner will be not the one who is more righteous, but the one who has a more powerful weapon. And what does “winning” mean in this case? Killing more “opponents”?
The world model, based on power contrast, endless competition, oppressing the weak, in my opinion, has exhausted itself. What is the evidence? Of course the same state of the world where conflicts are breaking out at any moment, and explosions are taking place. And the problem is not just Islamic fundamentalism. Nicholas Cruz is definitely not a fundamentalist. But one conviction unites him and a young Muslim man who wears a “shahid belt”: the problem can be resolved by revenge, force, winning in a fight. And this is also the conviction of the world powers, including the US President.
For centuries, we are being convinced that competition is the basis of development. To tell the truth, I have started to doubt that. If that were so, the competing “socialism” and “capitalism” would develop in 1945. But, entering into a senseless race, including armaments, they became really degraded, regardless of the fact that the former one lost and the latter one won. Armed psychopaths kill people every day in the “winning” country.
To arm people, instead of disarming them, to make them more dangerous and unpredictable is a dead-end option tested out a long time ago.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
