×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

America’s gun culture must end

Many Americans believe in the right to bear firearms
Last Updated 28 May 2022, 00:17 IST

Yet another mass shooting in America has saddened and shaken the world. This time, the carnage was at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students -- all between the ages of 7 and 10 – and two teachers were shot dead. The 18-year-old assailant gunned down his victims with an assault rifle. Security officials killed him subsequently. The massacre at Uvalde, the deadliest school shooting in the US in a decade, has once again exposed America’s failure to safeguard its citizens. How many more Americans, how many more children, especially, have to die in such shooting horrors before American politicians, the US Congress and the courts wake up?

As in the past, this carnage too has triggered discussion about the ethnic identity of the assailant and his state of mind. These are peripheral issues; the main reasons for these frequent massacres is America’s gun culture and the easy access that Americans have to deadly weapons. Many Americans believe in the right to bear firearms; they cite the US Constitution’s Second Amendment to justify it and insist that they need weapons to secure themselves. This is a specious argument. The so-called security that comes from arming oneself is fatally flawed as it only makes people vulnerable to weapons held by others. Such thinking has spawned a gun culture and militarised American society to alarming levels. An estimated 400 million guns are in circulation in the US; the country has more guns than people. Over 45,000 Americans died due to gun violence in 2020 alone, whether due to homicide or suicide, a 43% increase from 2010. Since the 2019 Columbine High School incident, the number of mass shootings in schools has gone up, as have the number of victims.

The Republican party, the National Rifle Association and other gun lobbies, the main proponents of this gun culture, have blocked all attempts to reform the gun laws. Attempts to expand background checks before sale of weapons, to ban sale of assault weapons and bump stocks, etc., have run aground largely due to Republicans blocking legislation in the House and Senate. Only last year, Texas’ Republican Governor Gregory Abbott signed 22 new laws that facilitate the purchase of guns in the state. President Joe Biden has expressed anguish, outrage and anger over the Uvalde shootings. Will he succeed in ushering in gun reform? Leaving the issue to the House and Senate to enact laws is unlikely to work. America needs a mass movement against its gun culture and its proponents. Too many lives have been lost to gun violence. It must stop.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 27 May 2022, 17:28 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT