Meth: a Ticking Timebomb Gone Viral

The Inevitability of Things

Firstly...thanks to those who helped me with this most difficult of questions...how to find happiness.

Moving on...inevitability? When you think about it, inevitability is a lot like matter in that it is all around us, and yet we never see it. Buy a new car, and it is inevitable that at some point, it will get its first scratch, need servicing, gain miles and eventually, need replacing.

We are born, and we will die...this is an inevitability no one can escape, and yet we don't walk around all day thinking about it. Perhaps this is because we are so aware and understand there is nothing we can do to change it. Of course, there will be moments of reflection, especially when we inevitably become sick, have an accident or become old, but on the whole, we don't tend to ponder on this, our own mortality.

With these latest developments in Europe, we could say that war is an inevitable thing...that sooner or later, one group of people will attack another and fight until there is an ending to hostilities. Whether there are any gains or benefits from this thing called war is debatable, but I think there would be few who would believe that war is a good thing.

I was born in 1964...a very good time to come into the world. I was too young to have been called to fight in the Vietnam war, and until the conflicts in the Gulf region during the 1990s, I had never known war. Living in Australia, so far away and with only our regular army (Australian SAS) soldiers involved in those conflicts, the effect it had on me personally was minimal. We are so very lucky to live in this country, and I was lucky to be born at the time I was.

Never having suffered any major terrorist attacks and only three mass shootings, the Hoddle Street massacre in 1987 where seven people lost their lives, the Milperra Mother's day massacre in 1986 where seven died and the infamous Port Arthur massacre in 1990 where thirty-five were killed, the government of Australia made gun ownership here much more difficult. They completely outlawed semi-automatic rifles, pistols of any kind (other than police or security, and even they must leave their weapons secured at their respective places of work when off duty), and pump-action rifles. Whether you agree with this kind of ruling or not, there is no escaping the statistics that since the government buyback, which saw thousands of newly illegal guns crushed and made inoperable, not one mass shooting has happened anywhere in Australia. Since the change in gun ownership laws, there has been a steady decrease in gun deaths going from 618 in 1991 down to 229 in 2019. Common sense says this downward trend was inevitable.

When you have millions of guns in the hands of ordinary citizens, it gives the impression of creating a safer place to live. Having a handgun in the top drawer is a great thing if someone enters your home with bad intent and you happen to discover the culprit before he sees you...unless of course, he has time to use his weapon before you do. But, the tragic reality of a child discovering the gun and being a child, who is without the ability to see the possible outcome of holding and pulling the trigger of this home security tool, then becomes one of the many horrors of mass gun ownership.

We are proof that not owning a gun doesn't cause us to become vulnerable...on the contrary, it makes us safer. It is not inevitable that living in the US or any other country where gun ownership is as easy as going into your local Scheels, and twenty-four hours later, walking out with the gun of your choice means that you are more safe, but it absolutely makes it more likely that you will become another statistic of gun violence.

Bad guys in Australia still have guns, but they mostly shoot each other. Yes, there are robberies, and bystanders do sometimes become victims of stray bullets, but this is rare.

Some things are inevitable, yet some are caused, and we need to acknowledge the difference and have the courage to say enough is enough. I understand that sometimes war is unavoidable, especially when dictators decide they want more...and that one day I will die, but some things just don't make sense when a teenage kid can access guns and then go kill innocent children...and in my opinion, this is one of the great shames of a country which holds itself up as one of the greatest on earth.