USA: Have guns, will shoot!
Amendment 2: USA Constitution
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Another gruesome mass murder in the USA last week (14 December 2012), 26 dead, of whom pathetically 20 are little children! Politicians weep in public, call upon God’s grace and say that the tragedy will make America stronger. We have heard it before, we will hear it again and again, but nothing will really change. Nothing can change because the interested corporations that manufacture or import and sell guns and their powerful gun lobby have most politicians in their pockets with their political donations, marketing and public relations campaigns. This is politics in America and it does not change. After all, America is the greatest country on earth that ever was, so why should it change.
How exceptional America is in this respect is succinctly revealed in a table put out by the UK Daily Mail of 18th December 2012.
Arms in the US: Figures that add up to tragedy
94,388 people shot in the US so far this year. 300 million privately owned firearms in US.
39 people killed by firearms in England and Wales over 12 months in 2008/9.
40% of gun purchases in the US do not need background check.
190 people shot in the US on Saturday alone (22nd December 2012).
11 is the minimum age in Minnesota to be eligible for a firearms certificate.
42 of the 50 states of the US do not ban or regulate assault rifles.
50 shots fired by a lone gunmen at a shopping mall in California the day after the massacre (no one injured).
70,000 women aged 51 to 65 gained a concealed –weapons permit in May 2012 alone.
50% of guns worldwide are in US – but just 5% of global population.
1 is the number of mass murders that have been carried out by a woman.
231 people killed in mass shootings (4 or more dead) in the US since May 2009.
35 people killed by firearms in Australia in a single year.
95 shots used by German police in 2011 (including 49 warning shots)
90 shots used by LA police to kill 19 year old man after high speed chase.
60 people were killed by firearms in Spain in a single year.
9,484 were killed by firearms in US in same 12 months.
The familiar argument is that it is not guns but people that kill. But the stupidity of that argument was proved again on the same day as this latest massacre when a man in China went on a similar murderous spree in a school in China. But since he had no access to guns and used a knife, 20 children were injured but none died and the man was apprehended.
The reliance on the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, approved 300 years ago, provides a specious argument and a fig leaf for the gun lobby and its supporters whose influence is national. It clearly talks of a well regulated militia to protect the state
because the US lacked both a proper Standing Army and a national police force. Today, the US has the most powerful military the world has ever seen and a huge police force covering federal, state and county entities. They are both equipped with the most sophisticated technologies. And yet the US Supreme Court ruled that the District of Columbia, the US capital, had contravened the law by banning persons from carrying concealed weapons in public and forced the revocation of the law.
The sanctity of this Second Amendment is strange. Constitutions are not written in stone by God like the Ten Commandments. Consider the Fourth Amendment: Search and arrest warrants.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
This particular amendment has been repeatedly amended in practice, with Congressional approval and the administration’s rulings, citing the security of the state and dangers of
terrorism. There is no argument that the country has to be protected from terrorists and the constitution’s amendments need to be accordingly modified. But why cannot the same be done with the Second Amendment, even granting the doubtful interpretation of the courts?
Gun lobbyists claim that the only way to protect oneself from gun violence is to be armed sufficiently to retaliate. Should we arm all the little children to protect themselves from
crazed murderers?
Primitive savages who lived in pre-historic times were always armed to protect themselves and their families. But in civilised societies it is the function of the police to protect ordinary citizens. But not in America, which will always seek to be an exception.
A concerned Congresswoman is expected to propose a law banning military assault weapons. But the law has 900 exceptions!
People will always get aggravated over issues which they will later forget and regret. In a more normal society, people might vent their anger by breaking some household object or even beating a person. But if a gun is at hand and the man (it is usually a man) is a
weakling and coward, he will use the gun. Most of the mass murderers have been young White males and are weaklings with a grievance against society who would run away from a bout of fisticuffs but feel powerful when using guns to kill others. That is why societies around the civilised world restricts gun ownership and only allow hunting weapons for licensed persons with no criminal records or diminished minds. But in free America one can not only own powerful military assault weapons, you could even possess old artillery pieces and battle tanks!
Kenneth Abeywickrama
14 December 2012