Revision-Should Civilians Possess Guns Legally? Definitely Not

The issue of whether civilians can possess firearms legally has been controversial for a long time. This agenda undergoes severe arguments in the gun-friendly countries, especially in the U.S. Civilians of countries with unsteady public security claim that they strongly need the firearms to protect themselves. Otherwise, they may be killed and die hopelessly. On the other hand, some people consider possessing firearms dangerous for every individual and the whole society, except for the police or militia because it will make killing easier. With the outburst of the incident of Virginia Tech, the U.S. government starts to think whether it is a good idea for civilians to own a gun. In my opinion, I disagree that civilians could own a gun legally because of the increasing gunshot victims, gunshot accident, and suicide problem.

Gun involved crimes often result in lethal death. According to the Jeffrey A. Roth’s Firearms and Violence Report, NIJ Research, almost sixty percent of murder victims, which are about twelve thousand people, are killed by deadly firearms. With the increase of crime rate, the number of the victims killed by gunshot rises year by year. For those who are seriously injured by firearm attacks, though not dead, some of them suffer from life-long illness or permanent disability. Beside the increasing victims, free access to guns makes the situation even worse. In Arizona, U.S., it is legal for civilians to won a gun for self-protection. However, last year, a student of University of Arizona shot three professors and killed himself only because he failed the test. Together with the incident of Virginia Tech, it gives us an alert that maybe we should deny civilians’ rights of possessing dangerous firearms.

Although the original purpose of possessing a gun is self-defense, more and more people die in accidental shooting. The firing mechanism of most of the guns nowadays is not well-designed. The trigger is very easy to pull, so even a five-year-old kid will be able to shoot. As the result, some people would get hurt by accidental shootings. Moreover, the NIJ Research informs us that a gun kept in the house is forty-three times more likely to kill a member of the household or a friend by accident. Besides accidental shootings, the phenomenon of using firearms to commit suicide within a gun present household is five times more than those without guns. Ironically, guns, whose original purpose is to protect human life, become the tool of suicide. Once guns are used, it would definitely lead to user’s lethal death. I can’t understand why we should have such a dangerous weapon in our house. The U.S. government should take immediate action to prevent the situation from happening.

No matter how severe anti-gunner criticizes the possession of guns, a lot of people still insist on owing firearms for the purpose of self-defense. Self-defense is commonly cited as the reason to possess firearms and about forty percent of the gun owners purchase guns for this reason. Indeed, the NIJ Research shows us that murder victims who defend themselves with guns are less likely to report being injured than those defend themselves with other means or take no protection measure at all. With guns, victims can protect themselves but not wait to die hopelessly. Also, sometimes it is too late when the police and investigator come to rescue them. Moreover, no matter how strict the gun possession legislation may be, the villains will always get a gun. One gun dealer in New York claims that more than half of the legally purchased guns make their way into the illegal market. Seeing that strict law can’t avoid felon and criminal from obtaining guns, pro-gunners declare the need of possessing a gun for civilians is necessary.

Whether civilians could own a gun is still under severe argument in the U.S. Though I disagree to have citizens possess gun legally, if the law eventually passes and civilians could own a gun legally, I think it should be legalized under certain circumstances. The national system for registering gun and ammunition would be a good example. In the U.S., different states have different laws. Even though people are unable to get firearms in one state, they can still get them “legally” in another. Besides the system, stiffer sentence for gun crime, instant background checks of purchasers, and gun education are preconditions to allow civilians to possess firearms legally.

Book review

Recently, I read the book named “To Kill the Mocking Bird.” Though I read it because our final exam of introduction to novel requires it, I get a lot of reflection after reading.

It talks about the life of Jem, Scout, and Atticus Finch and the people in their neighborhood. The most important issue is discusses is the coexistence of good and evil and the problem between the black and white. Jem and Scout often regard a person good if he or she doesn’t show any evil to them and consider somebody bad if there is somebody speaks ill of them. Kids often see the things from the surface but don’t explore its inner value. Therefore, they would have the misconception before they really know somebody. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, teaches them that you have to put yourself into other’s shoe, then, you will be able to see thing much clear than ever.

Though the law tells us that everybody is born equal, there is still the existence of social inequality. In the novel, Atticus defends for an innocent Negro against a sinful white people, everybody in town knows his notorious fame. However, at the end, the Negro is still convicted guilty by the jury. What if he is a white, and then the situation would be totally different. This kind of phememnon also exists within our modern society. The rich gets greater power. The politician gets greater influence. We have no way but to accept it since this situation has been hereditary from time to time. We people just have to behave well and do what we should do. Then, we need not to afraid of any threat

My leisure time

My close friend would know me as the hand-crafts mania. If I get some leisure time, I would spend the time to do something I like especially hand-craft. Recently, the teacher of my art and life class asks us to present something of our own creation. After some times of consideration, I decide to make rose out of paper and give it to my brother since he graduates this June. However, once I start to find the procedure of making a rose, I can’t help but click somebody’s blog because the teddy bear she makes is so attracting. Therefore, besides the rose for my brother, I make a teddy bear for myself. Besides hand-crafts, I would like to have time thinking about how to arrange my room in the more organized way. I find it hard to store small things such as scissor and my hand-craft stuff such as beans and paper for decoration. Therefore, I surf the internet for a way out. I spend about a hour surfing the internet and another hour to put those things in the right place. Eventually, I find out that most of my leisure time is spending on the internet searching for information and shopping online. Instead of regarding myself as the hand-crafts mania, I would say that I just have an addiction to internet and can’t help leaving it. It’s really important to control you time and do not waste it on meaningless thing. If I can do that, my leisure time would allow me to do more things that are beneficial to me.

Should civilians possess guns legally?

The issue of whether civilians can possess firearms legally has been controversial for a long time. This agenda undergoes severe arguments in the gun-friendly countries, especially the U.S. Civilians of the unsteady public security countries claim that they strongly need the firearms to protect themselves. Otherwise, they may be killed and die hopelessly. On the other hand, some people consider possessing firearms dangerous for every individual and the whole society, except for the police or militia because it will make killing easier. With the outburst of the incident of Virginia Tech, the U.S. government start to think whether it is decent for civilians to own a gun or the society needs a stricter gun law. In my opinion, I disagree that civilians could own a gun legally because of the increasing gunshot victims, gunshot accident, and suicide problem.


Gun involved crimes often result in lethal death. According to the Jeffrey A. Roth’s Firearms and Violence Report, NIJ Research, almost sixty percent of murder victims, which are about twelve thousand people, are killed by deadly firearms. With the increase of crime rate, the number of the victims killed by gunshot rise year by year. For those who are seriously injured by firearm attack, though not dead, some of them suffer from life-long illness or permanent disability. Beside the increasing victims, the free access to guns makes the situation even worse. In Arizona, U.S., it is legal for civilians to won a gun for self-protection. However, last year, a student of University of Arizona shot three professors and killed himself only because he failed the class. Together with the incident of Virginia Tech, it gives us an alert that maybe we should retrieve civilians’ rights to possess the dangerous firearms


Although the original purpose of possessing a gun is self-defense, more and more people die of accidental shooting. The firing mechanism of most of the guns nowadays is not well-designed. The trigger is very easy to pull, so even the five-year-old kid will be able to shoot. As the result, some people would get hurt by the accidental shootings. Moreover, the NIJ Research notes us that a gun kept in the house is forty-three times more likely to kill a member of the household or a friend by accident. Besides accidental shootings, the phenomenon of using firearms to commit suicide within a gun present household is five times more than those without guns. Ironically, guns, whose original aim is to protect human life, become the tool of suicide. Once guns are used, it would definitely lead to user’s lethal death. Why we should have such a dangerous weapon in our house. The U.S. government should take immediate action to prevent the situation from happening.


No matter how severe anti-gunner criticizes the possession of guns, a lot of people still insist on owing firearms to be legalized because of self-defense. Self-defense is commonly cited as the reason to possess firearms and about forty percent of the gun owners purchase gun for this reason. Indeed, the NIJ Research shows us that murder victims who defend themselves with guns are less likely to report being injured than those defend themselves with other means or takes no protection measure at all. With guns, victims can protect themselves but not wait to die hopelessly. Also, sometimes it is too late when the police and investigator come to rescue them. Moreover, however strict the gun possession legislation may be, the villains will always get a gun. One gun dealer in New York claim that more than half of the legal purchased guns make their way into the illegal market. Seeing that strict law can’t avoid felon and criminal from obtaining guns, pro-gunners declare the need of possessing a fun for civilians is necessary.


Whether civilians could own a gun is still under severe argument in the U.S. Though I disagree to have citizens possess gun legally, if the law eventually passes and civilians could own a gun legally, I think it should be legalized under certain circumstance. The national system for registering gun and ammunition would be a good example. In the U.S., different states have different laws. Even though people are unable to get firearms in one state, they can still get them “legally” in another. Besides the system, stiffer sentence for gun crime, instant background checks of purchaser, and gun education are preconditions to allow civilians to possess firearms legally.

What a week!!

This week is really a week of “Inconvenient Truth.” Last Thursday, Donna showed us a film called “Inconvenient Truth,” which talks about the problem to global warming. Though I had heard the title of the film before, I watched the entire film until my teacher showed that on Thursday. After watching the film, I had a lot of reflections. With the comparison of the pictures of glaciers Mr. Core showed, I realized how dramatic our earth has changed. However, since I have to take the six p.m. high speed railway back home after my five p.m. class, I soon forgot about the film. Then, if the film just slips out of my mind, how can this week be a week of “Inconvenient Truth.” The reason is that when watching television last Friday, I discovered that HBO was playing the tidbit of “Inconvenient Truth” and began to watch it from the middle of the show. It contains some materials that are not included in the film. After reviewing the film, next day, I went to buy the Time magazine Donna mentioned in class. After that, I found out that we human beings can do a lot of things to help solving the problem but not just stand by with folded arms. Moreover, that night, I saw HBO play the tidbit again and I finished watching the entire piece. HA! What can I say? It must be the destiny that I am doomed to have a weekend of “Inconvenient Truth.”

Reflection to globalization

In order to prepare for the midterm exam for oral, I have read many articles and magazines about the phenomenon of globalization. After reading all the materials, if you ask me whether globalization is good or bad, I would say that it is really hard to decide. Globalization helps the commodity worldwide to be exchanged, promotes the economy growth, and allows us to receive more information through E-mail and World Wide Web. Though it has so many benefits on the general public, in my opinion, I still feel that the drawbacks would be much larger than the benefit. Though the economy growth in the developing countries makes a huge increase, its environment is seriously damaged. The developed countries often set the manufacturing factories in the developing countries because of the cheap labor and land. The waste produced will seriously destroy the environment. Once the environment is destroyed, it would be hard to restore. Also, as I mentioned before that E-mail and World Wide Web allows us to get information around the world quickly. Internet allows us to learn no matter where we are. Someone says that it will help mitigate the gap between the rich and poor. However, I think the gap between rich and poor becomes even wider than ever. In the developing countries, there is little access to Internet. For example, in Africa, there is only one person out of a thousand who has ever used Internet and, in south-east, it is one out of five. For these countries, which are eager to progress, there is no tool for them to use. Therefore, the problem remains and the gap becomes even larger. It is time for us to contrive a solution to deal with the problem as a whole.

Relief after midterm

Same as usual, most of my midterm exams were held in the midterm week. Therefore, I studied very hard the week before midterm week. This time, again, I spent most of my time reading novels required for introduction for novels because I haven’t studied week by week and the pages needed to be read is about four hundred. Though I tried hard, there were about a hundred and fifty pages left. Reading novels is really hard to keep as a habit. Once I concentrate on reading a novel, I can even read one hundred pages a day. However, when busy with other trifles, I will just leave it until the exam comes. The novel teacher chose is quite interesting. The reason why I can’t finish the novel is that I can’t read it routinely. When preparing for the midterm or final exam, I always have a feeling that twenty-four hours a day is really not enough. Once I finish eating and laundry, there are only two to three hours left. Therefore, I need to postpone something to next day. Uh~ What will be the best way that I can finish all the things. Anyway, it is just the week after midterm. I will first have some fun and then go back to think about this problem. HA!!

Book Review-The gap between rich and poor in the world today.

In the world of 2008, there are still huge differeces between rich and poor, developed and less developed countries. But why? Who is to blame? What can we do about it? Many things have been tried out to solve these problems, but does it work?

It seems bizarre, that we, modern, intelligent people, have not yet succeded to get rid of the differences between DCs (developed countries) and LDCs (less developed countries).
We try, don't we? Every year, we grant 2% of our Gross National Product, GNP, to foreign aid to help the LDCs to get a better standard of living (better agriculture, more and better schools and hospitals, access to health personell, medicines, etc.).
On the other hand, is our "standard of living" the best for LDCs, and the one we should impose on them? For instance, what is the point of giving complex macinery like tractors and harvesters, which need expensive fuel and maintenance, to people who have harvested their crops by manpower for hundreds of years?
We know for a fact that the money we grant is not being used adequately. A lot of the money is taken by the governments of the less developed countries, and a great amount of the sum are not being used to the purposes they are meant for. Bribery and corruption are huge problems in developing countries.
It makes more sense to dig wells for people who walk for miles every day to get their daily water supply, than to support officials with BMWs and grand houses.

What a busy week

After three days of break in Kaohsiung, I found the homework and report waiting for me has already piled up like a small mountain. Two reports, one test, and two homework needed to be finished within a week. Because of the homework, I stayed up late until two o’clock and I felt dizzy and could fall asleep almost immediately. Though my new wishes of this semester are routine life, I still can’t follow the process well. Moreover, my bad habit of postponing everything becomes even worse. Uh~ Why can’t I do the things right and pace to the goal step by step. It is really time to urge myself. First, after finishing all the busy works, I will set a timetable for myself. Doing things routinely and spending some time to study for the certificate test will be my first goal to achieve. If not urging my self, I can’t do the things well as I wish.

The speech of the game theory

1Last Thursday, March 20, I went to the library to attend the speech give by,Reinhard Selten, the Nobel Prize winner of economics in 1994. I have studied economics in my five-year college, which is the period I discovered my interest in business. Before went to the speech, I reviewed the game theory. It allows me to have some background knowledge about it. At the very day, there were a lot of people wanted to listen to the speech. Being a little bit late, I sit in the back row. At first, I had hard time listening and understanding what Dr. Selten said because of the distance between us and his accent. After some couple of time, I got familiar with the accent and could well-understand the content. Speculated the whole speech, the content was what I had learned already. Dr. Selten only used some simple example to explain the theory. What impressed me the most is the reaction of Dr. Selten when one student asked him about the connection between the issue in Tibet and the game theory. Frankly speaking, I think what the student asked is really nonsense, but Dr. Selten still responded to his question well and honestly confessed that he is not an expert in politic. Though the content of the speech is somewhat similar to what I had learned, it is still a helpful experienc

Smaller Class, Better Learning Environment

“I can’t agree with him more,” is the reflection I had after reading David Daniels’ “Is Anybody Listening?” Because of the limited resource and requirement made by ministry of education that student ought to learn some general knowledge, university and college can’t help but start a course which contains hundreds of students but teach by only one teacher. Some people claim that the big class is economical and it can train students how to get the key points in the speech by themselves. However, it sometimes disencourages student from studying due to their inability to understand what the speaker says. Therefore, I strongly promote the small class system because the difference in talent, free discussion, and interaction between teachers and students.

Everyone has different talents, so the small class system allows teachers to take different care on each student. However, in the big class, teachers don’t have the capacity to take care of every student. If they spend that time on every student, the course can’t proceed at all. Within the small class, teachers know whether one student understand the content or not. Teachers can also adjust the pace of teaching according to students’ comprehension to the course. By doing so, not only can students learn effectively but enable teachers to know how to prepare for the course. I took the calculus in my college year. The teacher’s teaching style was okay to me, but one of my friends had hard time understanding what the teacher taught. In order to understand the content completely, she always had to stay after class to ask questions. Facing such a big class, the instructor couldn’t sacrifice the interest of the majority to help the minority. Therefore, the instructor asked her to attend the calculus in the night school because it is a smaller class. Then, teacher can spend more time on each student and help them understand the content completely.

Free discussion helps students to learn from each other. Students can learn not only from their teacher but also classmates. Unlike students in the U.S., students in the Asia country are not that active about raising questions in class because some people feel uneasy to speak in front of a big crowd. On the other hand, in a small class, teacher will be able to allow us some time to discuss the things just taught. Students will be able to talk freely about their opinion and question. Also, by discussing, students can know the other aspect of the same subject. I take the introduction to literature this year, and the teacher allows some time for us to discuss in class. Literature is quite subjective. People’s understandings about the same piece are different, so diverse responses are given. Through the discussion, I know some interesting comment of the story from my classmates and I suddenly realize that literature can be so creative and fantastic.

Interaction within student and teacher is reciprocal because it allow teacher to learn something new from students’ opinion. Teaching the same subject for years may be dull, but one of my teachers claims that after he reads the story again and discuss with students, he will get another new perspective. I took his introduction to novel class which contains only about fifteen people two years ago. Together with other classmates, we talked freely about our reflection and even related the topic in the novel with the latest news or PC game. At that time, we urged him to play a game that contains the same historical background as the novel we were reading. Through playing, we learned the exact situation of the society at that time. Then, we can analyze the context better than before. After we finished the novel, the instructor claimed that it was we that allowed him to know that playing could be learning.

The lecture system will not disappear from the university completely. However, if with enough resource and money, I strongly recommend schools to apply the small class system. It enables teachers to pay more attention on students needed special care. Moreover, discussion between students allows them to learn from each other. The better the learning environment is, the more active students become when study.

Keep the Hope!!

The poetry of the romantic period is the piece that I am engrossed in recently. First of all, I need to make a confession of my hatred to literature. As a rational person, I always can’t sense the inner feeling authors try to express. Metaphor used in the article is also a torture to me. I often wonder why the author can’t just express their idea directly. How come a long and tedious article attracts so many people? Thanks god, I have a good teacher who describes the article so vividly and a group of classmates to discus with. Gradually, I find literature becomes a little bit interesting to me and the piece of the romantic period is my favorite. Though oppressed by the rationalist and aristocrat at that time, the romanticist didn’t show any despair but hope. Their optimistic attitude is really worth learning. With the decline of the economy, the public tends to feel pessimistic about their future. Some people would commit suicide and accuse the government. However, there will not be any changes. In order to keep a successful life, you just have to do the right thing and do the things right. With economy dropping to a new low, Warren Edward Buffett still do his best to earn money and donate to charity. This year, he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world. One of my friends runs a net-shopping successfully. Facing the situation, they didn’t feel afraid and keep the hope. That is the reason they can achieve the goal. It is always better to think positively and have hope within your heart.

For one more day

"For One More Day" by Mitch Albom is the novel I read recently. What will you do if you can spend one more day with your beloved dead parents or friends. This is a quite interesting question, I think. Absence makes heart grow fonder. Once your beloved one is gone, you start to feel regret and wish to find something in the memory. This theory doesn't apply to me originally. However, after my grandmother died two years ago, though I didn't like her much, I began to feel sorry for my cold attitude to her. She often scolded me for not greeting her and other elders. I, as a teenager at that time, didn't think that much and just ignored what she said. Years after that, I heard my father talk about his mother and he told me that her scolding was the purpose to train me as a child with courtesy. At that time, I realize how much I misunderstand her behavior. However, she was no longer with me. Cherish what you're having now and don't feel regret once you lose it.

part-time job

Recently, I was considering to get another part time job in order to earn some pocket money. However, determining what kind of job to do was a dilemma to me. I had three employments during my school year because I thought practical working experience was as important as coursework. One was the waitress in Wufu Restaurant. My responsibilities were to order meal, serve food, and clean the desk. It was my first job, so I just worked about ten hours in weekend. After one year, I left the job because I was unable to preview lessons on Monday if working on weekend. Then, I found a daily job in a coffee shop. The nature of the job was similar to the previous one and the working hour was four hours (five p.m. to nine p.m.) per day. This working hour allowed me to have sufficient time to finish the homework and preview lessons. The third one was the summer internship in 2006. I worked as a business assistant in Wenheng Business Company. My responsibilities were to copy and type documents. The working hour was the longest one, eight hours per day, but I learned the most from this experience. Practical operations entailed serious thinking and earnest attitude. Any mistake you made really counted and it could not be solved by a mere apology. A well-organized team was really important to a competitive company. Though the experience of working as an assistant may be tedious to somebody, it is quite interesting to me. Maybe I will find a job in the business field, which may be helpful once I enter the society.

Pastime

Solving puzzle game in the New York Times is my interest lately. My philosophy teacher introduced this interesting game to my class and allowed us fifteen minutes in class to solve it. Although it looked easy, it was really hard to figure out. After fifteen minutes, my teacher taught us the smart tips, deduction and induction. He told us that you had to gather the information you had to infer the correct answer. By using the methods, I finally solved the puzzle. Solving puzzle with friends is really interesting. It is just like planning the group presentation. Everybody will write down his/her own ideas and discuss it. Sharing ideas is a good method to learn because two heads are better than one. I have learned a lot from the discussion I joined. My view point is quite limited. However, with the group discussion, I can see the world or issue through other’s eye and find out some aspects that I do not notice. I also like to play the crossword puzzle with my friends because one of the English teachers told me that playing crossword is also a way to learn English. I would always peep at the answer with consideration when I can’t solve it. On the other hand, playing with friends will not only prevent me from peeping answers but also hasten the finishing time. The most important is that my English vocabulary improves a lot.

University Life!!

Everybody must experience university life once in his/her life. University life is diverse and interesting. My most recent school is a small size college of languages. Resource and facility are very limited. Since the campus new construction is in progress, the space students can use is even smaller. Therefore, the abundant resource and great facility in Stanford attract me a lot. Last year, the students who took the course English Composition (2) were required to write a research paper. I decided to write the topic about allergic rhinitis because my family all have this problem. When searching for books and magazines related to allergic rhinitis, I encountered a big problem. The books related to medical science were few. My first idea was to abandon this topic and think a new one. However, because of inclination of interests I had, I decided to keep my original topic. I went to every public library in my city and I finally found some useful information, but some of the documents were written in Chinese. I had to translate and paraphrase the data myself. It was really a big pain. On the other hand, the library of NCHU owned a great number of books. The facilities in library and abundant books attracted me a lot. The resources allow students to learn more easily and efficiently. Moreover, reading books and magazines are good methods to renew ourselves and keep growing. Good library could provide people motivations to read because it is free and convenient.

Class review

I had a class about the environmental protection this year and I got some reflection. A lot of great disaster happened in the last two to three years. Hurricane Katrina gave me the greatest impact because the giant America suddenly became a helpless child. It was indeed one of the worst natural disasters in American History. Although I was not at U.S. then, through the TV screen, I can feel how terrible the catastrophe was. Flooding last for couples of days, people starved to death, and epidemic spread out because of contaminated water. Hurricane Katrina gave America a huge influence and revealed how divide the country was. The image between the united American after September 11 and the desperate African American waiting for help is really a huge difference. According to the article, Black Poverty’s Human Face, Business Week, September 15, we really have to consider the question Katrina played out. Would the response to the destruction faster if the victims were not poor people of color? Or was government unable to react quickly to crises at home? Government’s responsibility was huge. If government can face the problem and direct proper policies quickly, the situation will not be that worse.

Hurricane Katrina allowed me to recall the earthquake happened in September 21, 2000 in my hometown Taiwan. The disaster occurred at midnight, so lots of people were killed and buried when slept. Thousands of people were killed and a great many were injured. Moreover, a lot of houses and road were demolished. Shortage of living space and food and bad sanitation condition became big problem here. Situation in this region spread through press quickly. Government and Red Cross originated a donation in order to help people in the disaster area. Red Cross used the donation to purchase the commodity and food immediately after they received it. However, the government distributed the donation four months after they received it. Government’s explanation for spending so long to handle donations was the red tape they had to get through. Since it was an emergency, why can they omit or lessen the complex procedures and allowed victims to receive the funds quickly.