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(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

I wondered once if I should get my handgun. I sat down with a colonel in the Philippine military on the island of Boracay in the Pacific. We became friends, and he told me that the week before, some "pirates" had taken a bigger sailboat out to sea and boarded it. Armed (one of the criminals also held a grenade in his hand), they emptied their ship for what they found of value. At least the passengers survived, but here he did not go into detail. My thought was whether I should have weapons on board my sailboat – rather than being defenseless in such a situation. But would I shoot the pirates approaching? To protect those I loved?

Defenseless American pupils and students are now and again exposed to school massacres. 28. In February, 17 people were killed in Florida. At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland), 19 year-old Nicolas Cruz shot around with a semi-automatic hunting rifle (AR-15). In response, President Trump has now proposed that schoolteachers must carry guns, and they will receive a pay bonus if they do.

Around half a million young people took part in the March For Our Lives protest march on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington (DC) on March 24. They want strict gun control. At the same time, 800 protests were conducted elsewhere in the United States. As the spread of MeToo this is now accelerating with the workpiece NeverAgain. The generation of American teenagers is accustomed to social media, and we see here engaged, young and open-minded – not yet devoured by a cynical adulthood. This is the generation that has grown up after the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, and is used to being teased to be prepared for new massacres – rather than seeing it as a rare exception. In recent years, I can name the shooting episodes at Marshall County High School, Aztek High School, Virgina Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Umpqua Community College, Red Lake, Oikos University, Isla Vista, Northern Illinois University and Santa Monica.

Watch speech by Emma Gonzalez, the student who became a leading figure after confronting Trump and the NRA: 

The United States Second Amendment ("the right to have and carry weapons") is still a distance away from Norway, although our government also proposes arming police or military solutions to conflicts. At least the Storting majority has prevented armed police from standing in the streets.

In the United States, the influential National Rifle Association (NRA) is the biggest driver for keeping firearms warm. One would think that The Wild West was a laid back stage, but it is not. Michael Moore clarifies the NRA and the reason for the aforementioned school massacre in the film Bowling for Columbine (2002), but the NRA still faces new demands for stricter gun control. In the United States, nearly 35 people die each year due to firearms. In 000, more than 2015 were shot and the rest shot themselves. 

People's resistance to weapons is now more organized. For example, 2500 people called Florida authorities after the February massacre, sending 1700 emails in protest of Trump's proposed law that teachers should carry guns in schools. The grassroots organization Moms Demand Action now has 100 volunteers around the United States and an email list of 000 million, according to the New York Times. After the Florida massacre, they could add another 4. Florida just raised the age limit for rifles to 75, but then in March, the NRA filed lawsuits against it. Their points are constitutional equal treatment of citizens. Instead of dealing with enormous amounts of dangerous weapons, they try to draw attention to the fact that some Americans are mentally unstable.

At the same time, President Trump is unstable enough to change his mind on the weapons issue. Like many in the United States, he has long had a license to carry concealed weapons. He has previously stated that "he loves" the NRA. But now he was moving away from the surviving schoolchildren in Florida, asking for stricter background checks on gun sales. He also thought it seemed pointless with an 18-year limit on rifles when it was 21 for small arms. He will also prohibit the purchase of Bump Stocks that can be mounted on these semi-automatic rifles – making them fully automatic machine guns. We remember how Stephen Paddock killed 58 and injured an entire 851 people with such a rifle in Las Vegas in October. But after Trump's meeting with an NRA lobbyist in his oval office (the NRA sponsored him $ 30 million), he turned to the demand for an increased age limit: "It doesn't have much political support (to say the least)." Well, 80 percent of the American population wants this age limit, according to The Economist.

Over 800 demonstrations in the US in March.

Eric Trump, who himself is a hunter, recently mentioned to his presidential father that there are already 300 million small arms in the United States – almost one per capita – so new laws were nothing to worry about. And according to Small Arms Analytics, the trend is rising: This year, sales of 14,5 million small arms are expected. Europe exported almost 4 million of these to the United States in 2016. For example, the Austrian Glock and the German-Swiss Sig Sauer provided over 20 percent of the United States' small arms the same year. Glock has also given the NRA 10 million lobby kroner. And ask yourself how much of the ammunition comes from, if Norway is involved there…?

Because are there really so many enemies, dangerous strangers or so much to fear that one should arm? Instead, ask yourself which one cultural atmosphere we are in. In his later philosophy, philosopher Martin Heidegger described the mentalities of cultures over the centuries as different "moods" (Mood) where they were "voted against" and let new paradigms prevail. Want to let everyday life be dominated by hysterical media, accusing politicians, certain shooting episodes, terrorist acts – or the fear of a pirate out at sea?

The generation that is now protesting against all "security" and the use of weapons has a new slogan: "We call BS!" ("We shout 'BullShit!'").

Let's cheer them on! 

Truls Lie
Truls Liehttp: /www.moderntimes.review/truls-lie
Editor-in-chief in MODERN TIMES. See previous articles by Lie i Le Monde diplomatique (2003–2013) and Morgenbladet (1993-2003) See also part video work by Lie here.

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