Would You Rather Be Stabbed or Shot?

Everyone gets all worked up about our gun laws, especially after a mass shooting or close to an election. But yesterday in Australia, where "to legally possess a handgun, the owner must be licensed, and the gun must be registered; the owner must be a member of a recognized gun club, and the gun may be transported only between home, range, and the gunsmith's shop," a man killed six people in a busy Sydney shopping mall by stabbing them with a knife. Not a sword, mind you, but an "everyday"  knife.

If you are killed by a gun, most likely you will die immediately. But death by knife could take a whole lot longer, and be a whole lot bloodier. Personally I would rather die peacefully in my sleep, but if I'm going to be murdered it would seem like a quick gunshot into a vital organ is preferable to bleeding out slowly. But hey, that's just me.

So gun laws or no gun laws, would-be murderers find a way. Until we face the fact that mental illness is a much bigger problem than loose gun laws, random murders of innocent people by members of their own species, for no apparent reason other than insanity, misdirected anger and personal frustration, will continue unabated.