Guns are inextricably woven into the American psyche and for a nation founded on violence; it’s unsurprising that a mass popular culture that valorizes bloodshed and individual freedom, now lies frozen in horrendous dismay over the warm blood of innocent children in Robb Elementary School, refusing to dry up until it stirs up conscience for collective action and change. In the latest edition of a long series of mass shootings by deranged gunman targeting schools, a lone assailant wielding an AR-15 rifle stormed into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and at the end of the cold-blooded rampage, 19 children and 2 teachers lay dead. This was the deadliest school shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre of 2012 in Connecticut where 20 kids and 6 teachers were mercilessly butchered by a psychopath in broad daylight. Just as when Americans were coming into terms with another fatal shooting 10 days ago in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York where 10 blacks were shot to death in a racist attack, this incident has shaken the nation sparking a global outrage.  

Texas weeps and laments over the cultural aberration of fascination with guns and their ownership rights guaranteed and enshrined in their most revered document, the American Constitution in the First and Second Amendments. Ever since, Americans began to respect guns for their immense power… but oblivious of the fact that fear too was creeping inexorably into the minds of their generations. Fear is pervasive, it permeates the social fabric and it destroys societies. Critics of pro-gun advocates and legislators question the relevance of a document formulated 250 years ago in response to a revolutionary war, that permits unfettered individual gun ownership in the 21st century. The Gun Violence Archive that tracks and reports news articles pertaining to gun-violence related causalities has counted 34,500 nation-wide killings of children since 2014. It is appalling that more than 6500 of them are kids under the age of 12 and since 2019, 4500 children have lost their lives to gunshots, a number higher than US fatalities in Iraq War that lasted 17 years! 

The gun debate among the pro and anti in the US is an exercise in futility as they are heavily committed to absolutist positions that fail to mitigate the growing proliferation of assault weapons in the average American household. Civil libertarians argue that guns are a means of safety in rural Mid-West and South where police aid can be slow and therefore claim to be highly effective in combating run away thugs, shooting poisonous snakes and coyotes which lurk in the dark threatening livestock. But when these weapons reach the hands of incorrigible felons in a media saturated US, the result is carnage that leaves the “global policeman” powerless to protect its innocent lives. Two legged snakes and coyotes are much worse and dangerous than their limbless and four legged counterparts. 

Among the developed nations, the US is an outlier in per capita deaths due to firearms. According to Institute of Health Metrics Evaluation database of the United Nations, United States leads the pack in the western world with 4 deaths per 100,000 population, way ahead of Cyprus and Bulgaria with 1 death per 100,000 people. This is an unprecedented and alarming figure considering that fatalities by gunshot wounds average between 0 to 1 in almost all developed economies. Only some Latin American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Columbia and the Caribbean have higher death per capita than the United States due to a vibrant drug trafficking industry and subsequent gang land turf wars and vendettas. 

The National Rifle Association (NRA), America’s most powerful gun lobby has for decades successfully campaigned for an end to assault weapon ban. In 2018, Small Arms Survey reported that US civilian gun possession stood at 363 million as compared to 857 million in private possession globally. It is a disquieting statistic that the United States that accounts for just 4% of the global population has a staggering 46% of global civilian held firearms. Ironically, gun purchases in the US surge after mass-shootings for fear of personal safety as witnessed during Black Lives Matter protests that erupted nationwide following the killing of George Floyd by a US police officer. Consequently, personal firearms purchase increased to 2 million in June 2020 alone. Ever since the NRA formed its Political Action Committee (PAC) in 1977, it has transformed into one of the most powerful special interest lobby groups in the US with an enormous budget to influence members of the Congress on gun policy legislations. NRA argues that limiting gun ownership will have far fewer mitigating results because of a strong illegal gun market that is highly networked across the country. They succeeded in garnering socio-political support by pleading that if law-abiding citizens are deprived of guns for their personal and family safety, then the only ones who are left with firearms are the bad guys, thugs and goons who will terrorize societies and drive these into a state of anarchy. The NRA campaigns that private possession of firearms acts as a deterrent for anti-social instincts and therefore fulfils a balancing role in maintaining social order.   

A heavy white truck with refrigerated container pulls up at the coroner’s office in the quiet Ulvade. Inside are the frozen bodies of 19 little angels who will never wake up to fulfill the “American Dream”, plunging their parents, families and societies into an inexorable grief that perhaps time can never heal. The US gun lobby though has vehemently condemned the dastardly crime, is characteristically silent on gun-control, dancing with a deathly grin, fulfilling their version of the “Great American Dream” on the lifeless cadavers. The marginalized humanity who can still call good and evil by their proper names owes a tear at the edge of their tombs. 

Disclaimer : The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of TAS and TAS does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.