A bizarre solution to gun violence

Donald Trump has dismissed the massacre at the Florida school as the act of a ‘mentally disturbed’ person. He blamed the FBI for failure to prevent it and holds violent video games and movies responsible for the school shootings.

On the Valentine’s Day, the US witnessed the most deadliest school shooting in its history, after the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 that killed 32 people. An expelled student — Nikolas Cruz — walked into Majory Stoneman Douglas High School, armed with a semi automatic AR-15 rifle, opened fire, killing 17 and injuring 15 persons.

America is the most violent country, with 42 % of civilian arms in the world owned by the US — 112 guns for 100 people. Since the killing of 20 first graders in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newton, there are 239 school shootings in the US — five in a month. And the number of gun homicides is staggering 13,000 a year. One in ten Americans kills himself, while six out of ten fail in their attempt to kill. In 2012, more than 40,000 Americans had committed suicide with guns, as per the American Association of Suicidology. Nationally, guns are used in half of all successful suicides, particularly by the middle aged 45-54, who realise their youthful ambitions would never be fulfilled. As Obama said, “no other advanced nation endures the kind of gun violence seen in the US”.

According to the Violence Policy Centre study ‘When Men Murder Women,’ more than 1,600 women were murdered by men in 2013, the most common weapon being a gun. In 2013, South Carolina had the highest rate of women murders, followed by Alaska, New Mexico, Louisiana and Nevada. The gun violence kills more than 33,000 Americans every year. The US had nearly 53,000 violent incidents and 330 mass shootings in 2015. Among the juveniles, serving in correctional facilities, 86% had owned a gun, with 66% acquiring their first gun at 14 and 65% owning three or more firearms, illegally from family, friends and drug cartels.

The gun violence is rooted in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution that legalised the acquisition of guns. It is a fallacious assumption that guns guarantee personal security. In the aftermath of Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr assassinations, the Gun Control Act, 1968 was enacted. But this has not proved adequate to regulate and control the guns and check the gun violence.

Obama had voiced his frustration with the Congress refusal to pass gun control legislation. He wanted to make it harder to buy weapons and regulate the sale of guns through licence and registration. He believed the violence in society could be checked by shifting the emphasis on ethical behavior, good parenting and good education. He made a prophetic remark: “We do not have to accept this carnage as the price of freedom.”

Donald Trump has dismissed the massacre at the Florida school as the act of a ‘mentally disturbed’ person. He blamed the FBI for failure to prevent it and holds violent video games and movies responsible for the school shootings. According to a 2015 study by the Pew Research Centre, 49 per cent American adults play video games. He offered a bizarre solution to gun violence. He proposed “to arm school-teachers with concealed weapons to forestall incidents of school massacres.” This proposal is outrightly rejected by the teachers bodies — National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers and other teachers’ unions — resulting in social media uprising “as it emerged that not only did a designated armed school resource officer failing to challenge the shooter at the Parkland school, but three other armed country sheriff deputies were cowering behind their patrol cars while the shooting was going on”.

This is escaping from responsibility and refusing to address the real problem. As the Presidential aspirant in 2016, Trump said, “the answer to mass shooting is having more people with guns in the room, not fewer.” This flawed thinking and mental bankruptcy explain the growing gun culture in America. There is powerful politico-business gun lobby that opposes control on guns. It was the National Rifle Association that donated $30 million to Trump’s election campaign. Many members of the Congress are funded by the NRA and other gun-rights organisations, which spent $55 million in the 2016 election circle.

The shocking images of the young and innocent dying before their time are hard to bear. This has led to a rise in anxiety, depression and exhaustion — the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. One distraught mother at the Florida school shooting cried — “This is not fair to our families and our children to go to school and have to get killed.” It is not only the unregulated access to guns that explains violence and murders, but also the racial connotation. Nikolas Cruz was a member of white supremacist group and participated in its para military drills. In America, four out of ten shooters are white, while one in four is black.

 It is the first time that High School students have been galvanised into action. A survivor of the Florida school shooting — Emma Gonzalez — delivered a fiery speech at a rally that went viral on social media. She said, “To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you. It is a question of life or death…We are going to be the last mass shooting”. The teachers also have joined the protests demanding ban on assault rifles.

America — the land of Liberty — has gone astray, life becoming cheap and future uncertain. Mere raising the age from 18 to 21 for buying weapons and having background checks will not eliminate the gun violence. It is important for the politicians and businessmen to rise above their sectarian interests to make America safe for living. The gun lobby is holding the country to ransom, endangering the lives of innocent children. And blame the mass shootings on laws that fail “to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people.” It is unfortunate that conservative lawmakers, activists, and the right wing media, instead of realising the gravity of the situation, have been carrying unrelenting attacks on activist students.

The US model has gone bankrupt. The American lifestyle has become the most unsustainable in the world. The developing countries are paying the price for imitating the US model of development. It is fraught with serious consequences.

The writer is a Professor of Political Science and retired Principal, who published his magnum opus ‘The Trial by Fire: Memoirs of a College Principal’.