Murder outrage impasse How
gun crime bedevils US
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/murder-outrage-impasse-how-gun-crime-bedevils-us-9965058
Islam Is Not Terrorist by virtue of Surah Al Maidah, Verses 32 [
5:32 ]. And who is the real terrorist now?
WASHINGTON: The United
States is again forced to confront its deadly distinction as the world's only
developed country to be plagued by mass school shootings.
After a teenager shot
dead 17 people in a Florida high school on
Wednesday, there is zero indication that the United States is in any way ready
to adopt major new reforms to stop such tragedies occurring again.
In a recurring nightmare,
appalling millions of Americans and unfathomable overseas, the Florida carnage
was the 18th US school shooting since Jan 1. Each year, the country loses
around 33,000 people to gun violence.
Yet each time it is the
same. First come the horrified reactions, then unity in the face of tragedy,
followed by outrage, political polarisation and then impasse.
If the debate rings
hollow, it's because both sides are immutable.
At one end stand those who
oppose any gun control in the name of the sacred second amendment to the US
Constitution.
They argue that no law can
prevent deranged individuals and criminals from obtaining a weapon, nor from
opening fire in a school. Given the dangers, law-abiding citizens might as well
be armed to protect themselves.
On the other side stand
the likes of former Democratic president Barack Obama, who issued a new appeal
for action on Thursday, insisting "we are not powerless."
"Caring for our kids
is our first job. And until we can honestly say that we're doing enough to keep
them safe from harm, including long overdue, common-sense gun safety laws that
most Americans want, then we have to change," he tweeted.
But many gun control advocates
have given up hope of meaningful, national reform in a majority-led Republican
Congress where Obama failed to enact curbs amid partisan rancor.
REVOLUTION GLORY
Instead reformers
concentrate their fight on local politics, trying to convince elected officials
in a greater number of states to make criminal and psychiatric checks
compulsory before any gun sale.
Even this minimal
objective is often insurmountable in a country that places the gun at the heart
of its mythology of a nation born in the blood of its revolution and which
remains proud of its Wild West heroes.
Politicians bankrolled by
the National Rifle Association, the powerful lobby group that endorsed Donald
Trump's presidential run, refuse even to accept that a firearm is by definition
a lethal object and that widening access is risky.
On Thursday, Trump
delivered a televised address to declare the United Sates a country in mourning
but avoided
all mention of firearms.
He has portrayed the
Florida massacre as the
act of someone mentally disturbed, without
mentioning how the shooter could have acquired an assault rifle at 19, an age
few Americans can legally buy a beer or cigarettes.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions ruled out any
additional reform, saying instead that existing laws that try to limit gun
ownership for criminals and those who are dangerously ill, should instead be
enforced.
But a direct correlation between the
availability of guns and the frequency of shootings is clear in the statistics.
"Every nation is home to disturbed
teenagers who have been expelled from school. Only America gives them easy
access to tactical gear, semi-automatic rifles and bulk ammo," says
Shannon Watts, founder of "Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In
America."
US citizens, who account for fewer than five
percent of the world population, make up nearly half the armed number of
civilians on the planet. The homicide rate by shooting is 25 times higher than
in other developed countries.
PRAYERS, COMPLICITY
The risk of dying by gunshot in America is 300
times higher than in Japan.
"If more guns and fewer gun laws made us
safer, America would be the safest country on earth. Instead, we have the
highest rate of gun violence of any developed nation," says Watts.
As with every other day after a shooting, NRA
supporters pushed back on Thursday on this embarrassing question in the name of
dignity for the victims and their families.
"There's a time to continue to have these
conversations," said Republican Governor of Florida, Rick Scott. He and
Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio called for prayers.
"Don't tell me tomorrow isn't the
appropriate time to debate gun violence. If you're a political leader doing
nothing about this slaughter, you're an accomplice," said Senator Chris
Muphy, a Democrat from Connecticut.
Even celebrity intervention is likely to fall on
deaf ears.
"We owe it to our children and our teachers
to keep them safe while at school. Prayers won't do this: action will.
Congress, please do your job and protect Americans from senseless gun
violence," tweeted Kim Kardashian.
"Prayers without accordant action are
silent lies told to oneself, heard by no God, amounting to nothing," said
the actor Mark Ruffalo.
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