Knotted Gun sculpture outside UN Headquarters in NYC.
Here, in South Korea, as in every other part of the world, there has been grief and shock over the shootings in Connecticut. The loss of so many young lives in such a vicious act of violence is incomprehensible across languages, religions, and cultures.
After tragedies like this one, which are all too commonplace in the US, people want as much information as possible about the shooter, their family, their upbringing. Any clue at all as to how this could have happened, even though we all know that no answer will ever satisfy us. There is nothing we could discover that would make this ok or comprehensible.
As people across the world ask why – why on earth would someone do this? – in many places people are asking why this young man had access to weapons that could fire 6 bullets per second.
What possible reason could a person have for owning such weapons and why would they be legally permitted to do so?
As an American by birth I have asked myself these same questions many times. I’ve witnessed my homeland torn apart by mass shootings over and over again. Each time there is an outcry, an argument over gun control, a conversation about the state of mental health care, but nothing changes.
Here, in South Korea, regular citizens owning firearms is relatively unheard of. There are very restrictive laws surrounding weapon ownership in general and gun ownership in particular.
Hunting is not a common sport here, but those who are issued licenses for hunting weapons must store their guns at their local police station once hunting season is over.
Fans of Korean cinema may have noticed that characters, even the bad ones, do not carry firearms.
Many Korean women can grow up and live their whole lives without ever seeing one in person. (Military service is mandatory for men in Korea, so most of them have handled a firearm during that time)
There are many things that can be said, both, positive and negative, about living in Korea but one thing is for sure – I have never felt safer in my entire life. I live in the second largest metropolis in the world alongside a staggering 24 million people, and I am never fearful for my personal safety. Ever. To me, feeling safe in my environment is true freedom.
The reasons for my feelings of safety are varied and not limited to the restrictive laws surrounding gun ownership, but they are important to note because they stand in glaring opposition to the cultural norms in the United States. For one, Koreans have a mentality that can best be described as all for one and one for all. They are completely committed as a society to the common good. What hurts one person hurts everyone. Compare this to the idea of individual rights above all else.
Secondly, yes, restrictive gun laws. Knowing that a person simply cannot get their hands on a weapon that could quickly and indiscriminately kill scores of people makes me feel safer as I walk the streets of Seoul. And third, it is my opinion that the memories of the violence that has touched this peninsula in the not-so-distant past serves as a moral touchstone, a reminder of how important it is to cherish safety and security and to create that environment for one’s citizens by any means necessary.
Although America has been involved in two wars for 10 years, and many more before then, very few of us have actually seen the horror of war. Only 1 percent of the population serves in the military so it is also possible that many of us do not even know anyone who has served. There has not been a war fought on American soil for a very long time, and there is no one alive today who could tell us about it. Contrast that to here in Korea, where everybody knows or is related to a veteran of the Korean War. To this I would add that the mandatory military service forces a familiarity with weapons and war that perhaps satisfies any curiosity that may be lurking in the mind of a young man.
In the US we glorify war and violence through movies and video games and the like, but the fact is that few of us have actually experienced it in any meaningful way. Perhaps owning a gun makes a person feel big because they have this fantasy that that is how a soldier might feel. I can say with absolute certainty that most soldiers who find themselves armed in a war zone do not feel safe or free and would give anything to be home without the need or want for a rifle.
The fact is, though, the numbers speak for themselves. All one has to do is look at the numbers of homicide by firearm in the Unites States to see that unlimited gun ownership for civilian citizens does not make us any safer. And if we are not safe, we are not free. And if we are not free, what is the point?
Yes, there needs to be another national discussion in the US about guns, but not just guns. Also about violence and gore and what it means to be a good citizen. A second and third and fourth and fifth look needs to be taken at how we manage mental illness. We cannot stop looking until we get it right. And we need to ask ourselves if we really are willing to keep allowing children, defenseless innocent children, to pay the price for adults to own weapons that do not make any of us any safer.
As much as I personally wish it to be so, I know that in America there will never be a law prohibiting gun ownership outright. That’s fine. I don’t need the laws in the US to reflect my personal politics. But we do need to reinstate the ban on assault rifles. Not months from now, not after long arguments – now. We cannot ask another mother or father or grandmother or grandfather or brother or sister or aunt or uncle or cousin to withstand what is happening to the family members of those killed in Connecticut.
Enough is enough.
What are your thoughts? Tell us what country you are from and whether you feel safe, or not, where you live!
This is an original post to World Moms Blog.
Photo credit to Luke Redmond. This photo has a creative commons non commercial no derivatives license.
Ms. V. (South Korea)
Ms. V returned from a 3-year stint in Seoul, South Korea and is now living in the US in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her partner, their two kids, three ferocious felines, and a dog named Avon Barksdale. She grew up all over the US, mostly along the east coast, but lived in New York City longer than anywhere else, so considers NYC “home.” Her love of travel has taken her all over the world and to all but four of the 50 states. Ms. V is contemplative and sacred activist, exploring the intersection of yoga, new monasticism, feminism and social change. She is the co-director and co-founder of Samdhana-Karana Yoga: A Healing Arts Center, a non-profit yoga studio and the spiritual director for Hab Community. While not marveling at her beautiful children, she enjoys reading, cooking, and has dreams of one day sleeping again.
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I live in South Africa. I agree with most of what you wrote. In S.A. assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons were never legal for “civilians”. Unfortuantely, the recent law making it almost impossible for honest citizens to renew their gun licence (or obtain one), has only had the effect of creating a society where only criminals own guns! I don’t feel safer now than I did when the law (with regards to owning a weapon) was more “fair”.
I believe that the REAL problem in the U.S. is not so much that these kids have access to weapons (believe me, if there wasn’t a “legal” firearm in the house any determined kid can buy one off the street). The problem is that these kids are seriously disturbed and their “acting out” was not given the proper attention in time to prevent the disaster.
No “normal” individual wakes up one morning and goes on a shooting spree! I refuse to believe that the kids involved were perfectly “normal”, well-adjusted people who “suddenly snapped”! 🙁
Gun control is a tough issue, here, in the US. It is proven that guns are getting in the hands of people who are hurting and killing other people. I really enjoyed reading your point of view from Korea. Always interesting to read perspective from the outside looking in. Great post, Ms. V!
Jen 🙂
I really appreciate your post and perspective. As you note, the debate here in the US is hot right now, and I have friends on all sides of the issue. I’m sad and overwhelmed in general…over the violence, the loss of innocent life, and the tone of anger and cynicism spewing from what should be a thoughtful, cooperative plan for reasonable gun control. I’m still sorting it out for myself, but every post and discussion helps me get a clearer head, so thank you for addressing this.
I am also from the United States, and I am also living here in South Korea. Much of what you expressed is opinion and as such it is as valid as the next, but it is only an opinion. Here are some facts to base opinion on, then I would like to express my own opinion as well.
If you look at Wikipedia, “List of Countries by International Homicide rate” you will find the following data for the year 2012:
NATION MURDERS/100,000
Mexico 22.7
United States 4.8
South Korea 2.6
Switzerland 0.7
Japan 0.4
Mexico, South Korea, and Japan all have very strict gun control. Switzerland requires every young man 20 to 30 to keep a government issued, fully automatic rifle in there home at all times. until 2007 they also had 50 rounds of ammunition as well. Currently it would be easy to purchase ammo at a target rang and take it home. They don’t do that because they are Swiss, and the Swiss don’t do that kind of thing. It is not proper.
If you look at the data and think about it I believe any honest person would have to conclude that something other than gun control is at work here. I think you hit it right on the head when you said that in Korea it is “One for all, and all for one.” That is surely true.
An other thing you don’t find in South Korea is graffiti. Paint is not band, they just don’t feel compelled to go around painting everything with nonsense; it’s not polite. Once Americans figure out how to respect other people’s property we will be a lot better off.
There are a couple of other things that need to be stated. There is no such thing as a semiautomatic weapon that can shoot 6 rounds per second. No one can pull their finger that fast. But that is not important. A friend of mine was almost killed by a person with a pillow. The police showed up, and she was not killed. Killers are remorseful people.
Also according to the FBI in 2011 there were 356 murders with all rifles including assault rifles. In the same year there were 728 murders with hands and feet. Assault rifles are the least of our problems. (see FBI Expanded Homicide Data Table 8.) Out of 12,664 homicides 1/3 were committed with something other than a gun.
In the United States we have a cultural problem, and we need to address that or all the gun control in the world will do nothing, or even make it worse. We need to teach people to respect other people. It is my opinion that with strict gun control we will be more like Mexico than South Korea or Japan. We have whole areas of our country where the only family young men feel a part of is the gang they are in. That is not going to be changed by any gun legislation. That will be changed one family at a time.
Japan has an incredibly low murder rate as I showed above, It also has a suicide rate almost twice that of the United States:
Japan 21.9/100,000
US 12.0/100,000
Again in Japan murder is very much looked down on, but killing your self is even encouraged under certain circumstances. It is a cultural problem.
We need to change the way Americans think about violence and other people. Hollywood and the gaming industry is part of the problem as you rightly pointed out, but it goes far beyond that I think.
I believe it starts in the family. Love and teach your son well. It is our best hope.
I will say this and only this, you say you feel safe in South Korea. You live in a country that is still at war with your neighbor, who is absolutely insane. If he decides to invade, which he would loose how many of you would perish, because you believe firearms are terrible? You do realize that your country would be paralyzed until your military and ours fixed the situation. That would at the very least take weeks if not months. Until then I guarantee you would wish you had a sporting rifle or two.