A short snippet from Minute by Minute

Following is a snippet from my forthcoming book Minute by Minute. The book explores the ideas and actions that form my current approach toward constructing a caring community. I will be posting a number of snippets over the next few weeks and plan to publish the book in October. Please read, reflect, and comment.


Snippet: Minute by Minute

“This crime bill will put more cops on the streets and toughen the sentences for all offenders,” I read the President’s words in the lead article of the May 1st newspaper. The headline read: New Anti-Crime Bill Expected to Pass. I read on:

The House and Senate are expected to pass the President’s proposed crime bill this week. The bill, hailed as the most comprehensive crime legislation in history, will provide more than five billion dollars for new prisons, prison renovations, and putting more police officers on the streets. “We are winning the war on crime,” the President said. “And this bill will bring a victory, sound and sure and soon. America will be safe….”

I put the newspaper down and left for class. I continued to think about America’s approach to crime all day long. Our leaders were about to pass a bill that would continue to solve the crime problem through punishment and a system that puts more people behind bars. The leaders think that our system is working but only fails because we don’t have enough personnel to maintain it.

“What would you do to reduce crime?” a student in my criminology class posed the question after listening to Doc Warner criticize the system’s effectiveness.

“Two things,” Doc Warner said. “Control guns and legalize drugs.”

“But the guns are not the problem, it’s the people pulling the triggers,” someone behind me said.

I thought about that and could see the validity of the statement. I once used the same argument in an article I wrote about drugs. Drugs are objects; they don’t jump down people’s throats. What we need with guns is to teach responsible use, I thought. But before the thought could solidify, Doc Warner was contesting the idea.

“Well that’s bullshit,” he said. “People don’t kill, guns kill. If I want to kill Rod, I can get a gun in,” he looked at his watch. “One half hour. But it would be much more difficult to kill him right here and now without a gun. If it were harder to get guns, if we controlled guns, violent crime would be reduced. If someone is having an argument and there is a gun easily available, that can easily lead to killing. But without a gun, you have to think more about it and that gives time to cool down.”

“Guns make killing impersonal,” someone to my right said. “You don’t have to even touch someone. You can kill from a distance. You can kill without leaving a trace.”

“Yeah,” another student chimed in. “Who ever heard of a drive by knifing?”

The class laughed for a moment. “Crime would go down because it would be much harder to kill,” Doc Warner said.

“But how would you control guns?” I asked. “The United States produces and sells the most firearms. The black market would skyrocket if you outlawed guns.”

“That may be so, for awhile,” Doc Warner said. “But when production of firearms is halted, eventually the guns will be taken out of circulation.”