TEXAS CARNAGE: THE NATION IN TRAUMA

If guns made people safer, then the United States would be the safest place in the world. How many more children have to die before the right accept that the answer to bad guys with guns is not good guys with guns, it’s getting rid of guns. ”

On May 25, the killing of 21 people, including 19 children, in a primary school in Uvalde city of Texas has shocked the whole of America. This heartwrenching incident of child massacre has given rise to new discussions for the Biden administration to make concerted efforts towards gun control at the federal level.

Actually America’s 2nd Constitutional Amendment (15 Dec.1791) enshrined to own a gun as a right to citizens. Amendment reads: “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.” Therefore, citizens should not be denied possession of arms. But the changing scenario has made it extraneous by eliminating the concept of regulated citizen. With more than 400 million of firearms USA tops the world in terms of gun average per capita. The United States, with only 5 percent of the world’s population, owns 48 percent of the world’s guns. That is 89 percent of American have firearms.

According to the Gun Violence Archive a record 18 million guns were purchased in 2020. (40 pct. Purchaser are women) This fascination of guns is now posing the biggest challenge. According to the report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s for National Canter for Health Statistics 44,826 people died in the 2021 and the country suffered $ 300 billion in damage due to gun violence. In the first five months of 2022 there have been more than 17,499 deaths in mass shooting incidents that is 119 deaths per day.

The tragic 10 person died and 23 people were injured in the mass shooting incident in the Buffalo Super Market and in subway of NY City in a month; shook the whole of America. To stop such violence, an emergency declared in New York in July last year, the state government had made a provision of spending Rs 1038 crore So that youth can be freed from depression by creating employment opportunities and they should leave the path of diversion-violence. At the federal level, President Biden directed the Justice Department to prepare an action plan on Ghost Gun (Home Made Gun) and a draft on “Red Flag Law” to deal with gun violence. A plan of spending Rs 37,320 crore for the prevention of gun violence; along with it was also announced to send a strike force to effectively curb gun smugglers across the country. But the gun fascination of American citizens thwarted all efforts of the Biden administration.

According to the Centre for Homeland Defence and Security, there have been a huge increase in incidents of shootings in schools which is very worrying. In the 2021, there have been 222 incidents, so far this year there have been 136 incidents in which 27 innocent deaths have occurred. The recent incident of child carnage has shocked the whole of America. President Biden said in his condolence message- “To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away.” He quoted scripture: “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

In such situation only the National Rifle Association (a strong lobbying organization) should be expected to play its positive role in getting rid of the horrific violence. Notably the NRA slogan is “Guns don’t kill anyone, people kill each other.” More than 5 million citizens are active members of this association and ever-increasing number is fretting. According to statistics, NRA spends more than Rs 1900 crore in lobbying, which is many times more than gun control advocacy groups which thwart the overall efforts of governments. That’s why the President said helplessly- “As a nation, we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby.

Undoubtedly gun violence has inflicted deep wounds on American society and tarnished America’s image internationally. That’s why Biden had said- “Gun violence is an epidemic, an international embarrassment for America, more a public health crisis than a gun crisis.” (8 April 2021). Whatever, governments and elite citizens should make concerted efforts to stop gun violence.

The fascination of Indian youth towards illegal weapons is also scaring. Possessing illegal arms and posting pics with weapons on social media has become the choice of most of the youth. They consider gangster as their ideal. Incidents of firing in wedding ceremonies have become very common among youth. News of illegal arms like- Desi Katta, Semi-Automatic Pistol, 12 bore gun factories in the Mewat areas of Bharatpur-Alwar; Noida, Gurugram Faridabad and Ghaziabad of NCR very common. The result of all this was that gangster directly challenged the law and order situation in states. E.g. Vikas Dubey’s Bikru incident in UP, Incident of gangster Papla absconding from the police station by firing weapons like AK47 at the police station and the AP encounter in Rajasthan. To deal such situation the GOI has amended The Arms Act 1959 in the year 2019, in which the provision of life imprisonment has been made in some offences. Despite this frightening picture, the situation in the country as a whole under control due to the strict system of arms license and continuous seizures- arrests by the police.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL