Gun Violence - an International Disease

 

     Image created by Neville Grundy. Thanks, Nev.                                       

The late Malcolm Muggeridge once said that Americans behave like an invading army in their own country, going on to comment that, among other things, they slaughter each other wholesale with firearms. The Uvalde school massacre, which happened only a few days ago on the 24th, would seem to bear this out. And who could argue against forming such a despairing verdict? The details of the atrocity are horrific enough. As the BBC says:

 "The attacker (Salvador Ramos) shot dead 19 students and two teachers, and injured at least 17 more people. Further tragedy struck two days later, when the husband of one of the murdered teachers died of a heart attack".

This attack has once again highlighted the appalling phenomenon of repeated mass shootings in the USA.  As of last Tuesday, there have been 212 such attacks this year, This is using the criterion of a mass shooting as being an incident in which four or more people were shot or killed, excluding the shooter.  Among these 212 attacks, there were 27 school shootings. The NPR website expands on this: 

"As for school shootings, according to Education Week, 2021 had 34 such incidents at educational institutions (the highest since the organization started its database). In 2020, there were 10 shootings. Both 2019 and 2018 recorded 24 shootings".

Living in a country which has only ever experienced one such atrocity - the Dunblane School massacre of 1996, these attacks set the mind reeling.  Even more staggering is it to be reminded of just how prevalent death by firearm is in America. The BBC comments: 

"Firearms deaths are a fixture in American life.There were 1.5 million of them between 1968 and 2017 - that's higher than the number of soldiers killed in every US conflict since the American War for Independence in 1775."

By no means should we think that people in the United States are complacent about these horrifying occurrences. Even today, there are angry voices of protest being raised against the ease with which guns can be purchased. For me, sadly, it brings a feeling of Deja vous. This horrible crime at Robb Elementary School brings memories of "Bowling for Columbine"  (Click link to watch whole film). This 2002 documentary looked at the events of  April 20,1999, when two teenagers shot dead 15 people and wounded 21 more at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The film maker, Michael Moore, was rightly praised and won an Oscar for his efforts to portray the events, causes and consequences of the massacre. One significant moment, at least for me, was the dialogue between Moore and the father of a boy who had died in the slaughter. They were discussing why it was that such attacks were so frequent in the USA: "What is it?" "What is it?". After first seeing the film in 2005, I had some hopes that the coverage in depth of this tragedy might lead to less of these atrocities. As events have shown, my hopes were misplaced. Following the Uvalde attack, Michael Moore is calling for the abolition of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution - the clause revered by US gun lovers.

By a strange coincidence, the main opposition group to gun control in the USA - the National Rifle Association - features in both narratives. Shortly after the Columbine attacks, the NRA held a conference in Denver, Colorado, addressed by Charlton Heston. On Friday, the same organisation held a conference in Houston, Texas, this time addressed by ex-President Trump. Both these events showed stunning callousness and tactlessness on the part of the NRA. Trump showed unbelievable, if predictable, indifference to the suffering of the relatives of the victims at Robb Elementary School by saying, as CNBC reported:

“The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens,” Trump said at the NRA convention. “The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens.”

If Trump's logic were valid, the USA would be one of the safest countries on the planet. It is nothing of the kind, as the high gun crime figures quoted above clearly show, Whether Trump and the NRA like it or not, there is an undeniable link between those crime figures and gun ownership. One glance at the BBC chart above shows that the US has the highest ratio of gun ownership in the world: 120.5 firearms per 100 residents. The chart relates to 2018, but experts say that millions more US citizens have acquired guns since then. Quite how Trump and the NRA can assert that evil is being deterred, when all the evidence is against it, beggars belief. The mass shootings, and the daily toll of people shot in single victim gun attacks (estimates put it as high as 60 a day) prove them wrong. Yet, even among onlookers at the Uvalde school massacre, there were voices raised saying "guns don't kill people, people kill people". It's difficult to feel optimistic that gun control will happen in America any time soon.

While, rightly, we focus upon these terrible events on the US mainland, it is only fair that we look at gun violence as an international phenomenon. Liberal gun laws in some US states are causing America's gun problem to be exported. The recipient countries are, for the most part, America's Central American neighbours. As Ioan Grillo wrote in The Guardian last year: 

"An iron river of illegal guns flows from the US to Mexico, Central America, and across the hemisphere, helping make the Americas the world’s most homicidal region, with 47 of the world’s 50 most murderous cities".

And, as Grillo goes on to say, this state of affairs has serious repercussions for the United States:

"Thousands flee violence in the Northern Triangle of Central America - Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – and seek asylum in the US, adding to the pressure of undocumented migrants."

For a worldwide perspective, we can turn to the "Gun Violence - Key Facts" document, published by Amnesty International. Five sobering facts stand out:

"More than 500 people die every day from gun violence.
44% of all homicides globally involve gun violence.
There were 1.4 million firearm-related deaths globally between 2012 and 2016.

An estimated 2,000 people are injured by gunshots every single day
At least 2 million people are living with firearm injuries around the globe".

The document points out the fact that the American NRA and others choose to deny: 

"Easy access to firearms – whether legal or illegal – is one of the main drivers of gun violence".

The report further goes on to say that in countries with strict gun controls, i.e. much of Western Europe including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, the rate of gun violence is extremely low.

Now, as we know, handgun ownership in the UK was curtailed after the Dunblane School massacre of 1996. The only politician of any note who has expressed an interest in reversing the ban was none other than Nigel Farage, back in 2014, when he was the leader of UKIP. Perhaps the best voice to close this blog item is that of Mick North, whose 5-year old daughter, Sophie, was one of the 16 children killed in the Dunblane Massacre:

"Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Florida in 2018, I wrote a speech which included the following lines: “We’re always being told of America’s love affair with the gun, yet from over here it looks more like an abusive relationship, one that causes too much pain, misery and death. Seize the opportunity and change that relationship now, and allow your children to look towards a safer future.”

Amen.

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