Korean statue of liberty

Last week I bid farewell to one of my students. He's now moved up to a class level that I thankfully don't teach. I have always found him quite strange, especially his fixation with guns and overuse of the words "death", "die" and "kill". He's always drawing in his books. This was his goodbye piece for my class. The statue of liberty, complete with machine gun and sword.

Guns in American church. Bang bang

I read with some surprise and disgust this article from the BBC where a pastor in the US state of Kentucky has encouraged his parishioners to come to church with handguns. One particular quote sprung to my attention: "If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country would not be here today". The article is very interesting and enlightening for someone who does not live in or has never been to America. The rationale of the pastors actions are to encourage safe gun ownership. If everyone in your neighbourhood has a gun then you probably will have to end up buying one too just to defend yourself but if nobody has one, then why would you ever need one?

I am glad to live in a country right now where crime is not overt and in your face. Even as a victim of crime in Korea I still feel a hell of a lot safer than I did back in England. I walk the streets here oblivious to the worries of the world and I hope that is the way it stays. I still find the sight of a gun shocking. You do see some people in Korea with guns, but they are usually bank workers, postal office workers or police officers. I don't really agree with regular police officers having guns anyway, but at least they may need one at some stage. I find it hard to comprehend why you would bring a gun to church, surely the last place you would need one. Well intentioned the pastor of the church may be, this is plain wrong. Violence begets more violence, does it not?