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” — The Second Amendment, The US Constitution.
The Second Amendment in the US Constitution is the backbone of the entire gun control or rather, the lack of gun control debate that has particularly been an issue in the spotlight in recent times even more so than before. The December 2012 mass shootings of 20 children aged six and six adults in an elementary school in Connecticut by a crazed shooter was supposed to be the ‘tipping point’ in the gun control debate but very sadly, even this most horrific and tragic of incidents has not been the cause of any successful gun control legislation in the US as has been seen in the past in Great Britain and Australia.
One of the main reasons for this is simply the interpretation or rather misinterpretation of the famous Second Amendment to the US Constitution. Although written in 1791, when it was believed that arming the citizenry against a tyrannical government was necessary, it is still used today in rhetoric and, unfortunately, in practice as the right to carry and bear arms for the protection of individuals and their families. There is also some romanticism and nostalgia in this love of bearing arms, which dates back to the days of the pioneers and the opening of the West in order to defend themselves against Native Americans, bandits and wild animals.
However, this romanticism and nostalgia, which is well-ingrained in the American mindset and culture, is kept well, alive and notoriously politically strong by the National Rifle Association (NRA), which has strong interest groups among Congressmen and protects the arms industry’s interests commercially. It is the lethal mixture of a culture that feels the constant need to protect itself against enemies and the highly potent lobbying of the NRA, which has made the US the most armed country in the world. Today, it is estimated that the law enforcement agencies and the military possess four million weapons while American civilians possess 310 million assorted weapons, including assault weapons, which are found in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. To add to these shocking facts, approximately 50 percent of all gun sales involve private sellers and do not require any background checks.
This leads to the nightmares that have resulted in the high school shootings in Colombine in Colorado, Virginia Tech University in Virginia, the Sikh Temple shootings in Wisconsin and the elementary school shootings in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, just to name a few incidents. More young people each year are killed and maimed by gunfire in the United States than all US casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan put together and gun homicides is one of the biggest causes of death among the youth. There are 30,000 gun-related deaths in the United States every year.
The statistics and life stories are chilling. Recently, a two-year-old girl was accidentally shot and killed by her five-year-old brother with his family’s personal gun. In April in Tennessee, a four-year-old boy shot and killed a 48-year-old woman. A few days later, a six-year-old boy was accidentally shot by another four-year-old. Parental responsibility is no doubt an issue in cases such as these but a great deal has to do with the gun culture in the US and the interests of the NRA, which seeks to arm its members with guns in order to protect citizens from what it calls government tyranny. There is no doubt that the intensely strong lobbying by the NRA has imbedded itself into American culture well enough to actually have people believe that they must arm themselves to the teeth in order to protect themselves from…themselves.
The horrific results are that the continual spiral of deaths caused by homicides and accidents due to guns increases, with no hopes of any legislations being passed by the Congress, which controls the selling and purchasing of guns, in any way. The startling response of the Conservatives and the NRA after the Sandy Hook shootings was far from one that advocates gun controls. Rather, the argument supported more guns in schools, even arming teachers in order to defend their students against any attacks. Under such circumstances, how can any intelligent and sound decisions be made in constructing a safe society?
President Roosevelt had said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This statement could not be more appropriate for the gun culture that has frighteningly materialised in the United States. Between misinterpreting the Second Amendment and losing complete perspective of its place in a set period in history, the aggressive lobbying of the NRA and citizens’ fear of not being able to protect themselves against violence (yet in the process causing it also), the vicious cycle of the lack of gun control continues fiercely and more and more innocent lives are lost.
The writer is an English and French professor and columnist residing in the USA and France. She can be reached at [email protected]