America’s gun control problem

Firearms are the single thread connecting every school mass murder in the US

I’m only 13 years of age and even I can see that Americans are faced with an ever-growing problem of violence. Terrorism and crime are only part of the wider malaise. The streets of America have become a battleground where the elderly are beaten for their social security cheques; where women are viciously attacked; where innocent children are caught daily in the crossfire of drive-by shootings. Americans cannot ignore the damage these criminals have brought to their society.

Firearms are the single thread connecting every school mass murder. You can tackle a baseball-bat-wielding psychopath, but the victims at Columbine High School had no chance against two deranged young men armed with two sawed-off shotguns, a semi-automatic rifle and a semi-automatic pistol. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered the school, shot and killed 12 students and a teacher. They then killed themselves.

Michael Carneal, who went to Heath High School, killed three students. He had wrapped a shotgun and rifle in a blanket, passing them off as an art project that he was working on. Luke Woodham killed his mother, went to Pearl High School and shot nine kids. Eric Houston went to Lindhurst High School with a semi-automatic pistol, killed four people and severely wounded 10.

Guns account for 10 per cent of all deaths occurring between the ages of five and 14. In May 2006, the 10-year-old son of a New York City police officer accidentally shot himself in the head with his father’s .38 caliber pistol, which he found in a closet while looking for a ball to play with. In June 2006, a 12-year-old New Jersey boy accidentally killed his best friend while the two were playing with his father’s gun. They found it in an unlocked box. For every child who dies from a gunshot, three more are injured, and a quarter of those injuries lead to permanent disabilities. A review published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine states: “Firearms are as likely to be present in US homes with children as in homes without children. They are often stored in unlocked locations and loaded.”

Studies have shown that 72 per cent of suicide victims have guns in their homes. In the US, more people kill themselves with guns than by all other methods combined. Firearm availability increases the rate of suicide, and the use of handguns by the youth to commit suicides and robberies, has risen. So should Americans still be able to carry them?

The right to bear arms in the American Constitution was not extended to each and every individual, but was rather limited to maintain an effective state militia. The Second Amendment and recent Supreme Court decisions do not block stricter gun laws. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment allows for restrictions on gun purchase and ownership. It is completely compatible with gun laws affecting private ownership of firearms.

Over the years, the weapons involved in disputes have changed dramatically from fists and knives, to guns. There are 220 million guns in the US, which has a population of about 260 million people. There were 464,033 total gun deaths between 1999 and 2013. There are approximately 270 million guns possessed by civilians and only 897,000 by the police. The National Institute of Justice estimated that in 2011, 68 per cent of murders, 41 per cent of robberies and 21 per cent of aggravated assaults were committed with firearms. It will be pertinent to quote Stephen King here, who once said: “How many have to die before we give up these dangerous toys?”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th,  2015.

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