But what is also under scrutiny, once again, as in fact happens after any such incident, are the gun laws in the US and the ease with which people are able to acquire arms. All of Holmes’ four guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition were apparently bought entirely legally. Calls have come in for tougher gun control laws but there is already much scepticism as to whether these will ever be implemented given the power of the gun lobby in the country and the backing it receives from politicians and others in powerful places.
This brings us to our own country. Gun laws are not as relaxed as in the US, but due to their lack of implementation, the end result is the same. Pakistan is rated as a country with one of the highest number of weapons in circulation; Karachi is said by international agencies to have more small arms than any other major city in the world. It is true that we may not have seen the kind of psychotic killings the US has experienced over the years, but the easy flow of guns through society is responsible for the repeated gun fights in Karachi and violence of all kinds elsewhere. In this age of the internet and instant TV coverage, we may not even be far from a ‘copycat’ killing spree such as that carried out by Holmes. We need then to remove guns from people’s hands, just as should happen in the US, to make society a safer place.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 22nd, 2012.
COMMENTS (12)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
In whose name he killed? he killed in the name of freedom, secularism and democracy. Believe it or not!!
It is easy to hide the failure by saying it was psychotic case......We now what US has done with the world but now it is there time ....it remindes me the old saying Before digging hole for other dig one of ourself.
American culture is a synonym of gun culture.they tend to solve every problem with guns.watch Hollywood movies, they have a ready-made solution in the form of guns to tackle any problem.bigger the problem ,bigger becomes the gun.be it a enlarged reptile,a ghost,a badman,a zombie,a robot everyone is annihilated by capt America by their strange looking guns.easy access and a glorified view of guns have brought such condition where mass killings by some gun-totting nut-job has become a regular phenomena.
I thank Allah he was not a Pakistani.
Can Liberals call this guy a terrorist or they will still be a mouth piece of Fox/CNN and call only Muslims as terrorists?
There is a saying: " If arms are outlawed only outlaws will have arms". Gun's don't kill people, people do and people who need guns will always be able to get them. Why try to stop the common people from bearing arms?
And why should guns be banned in the US? There are hundreds of cases where they have been used in self defense.
The only thing being left out in the gun control debate is the fact that if you want to kill people bad enough, you'll find a way. They're a convenient way to do it, though. While that killer did have legal possession of those guns, most gun related crime involves ones that are illegal. If they can't be stopped, stricter gun laws are just a distraction to finding an actual solution. Do I have a plan? No. I haven't given it much thought. Does it mean I can't if I try? Also, no. But you won't find me causing a scene for better car locks if mine gets stolen when I know they can find a brick.
Personally, I don't own any nor do I intend to purchase any in the future. So, whichever way it goes doesn't change enough for me to really care that they get restricted. But, if I hypothetically was dead set on killing a bunch of people, it wouldn't stop me or hinder me. It wouldn't even be able to stop me from getting one, anyways. If someone is willing to go so far as to commit a crime like that, what's breaking into a place and just taking one beforehand to them? The human imagination is quite a thing and the human body is vulnerable to a whole lot more than bullets.
YAwnnnnn.... boring
This is the failure of family system in USA, computer/other gaming machine games where some hidden hand is playing behind the scene, drugs which are available in middle and high schools, restrictions for parents not to touch or punish, law enforcement agencies. The youngster are detached from parents and loosing value of tolerance.
At least they are brought to justice in the US. THAT is the main difference you see!
If James Holmes was a muslim then he must be mentioned as a terrorist. When they do something like this it is projected as psychy problem. What a dual standard of the west people and media. Shame