Daily Times

Yet another mass shooting in the US, yet another reason to enforce strict gun control laws. The most recent tragedy was a community college in Oregon where a gunman killed as many as nine students. Latest reports allege that the shooter was enrolled in the college — Umpqua Community College — and that the victims’ ages varied from 18 to 67. The shooter, Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer, brought six guns and five ammunition magazines to the school to inflict maximum damage. He died in a shootout with police. The guns and rifles he had were purchased legally over a period of three years. Not much needs to be said about how easy it is to acquire such weapons in the US. The very fact that there have been more mass shootings in the US this year says a lot about the abundance of guns in the US. Just a little over a month ago a disgruntled employee of a television station shot dead a female reporter and cameraman live on air in Virginia. One need not talk about the many instances of shooting in public spaces such as cinemas and in schools and colleges all over the country. Sometimes it seems that the easiest thing to purchase in the US is a gun.

After the Oregon shooting a visibly distraught President Obama showed his frustration on live television when he spoke about the desperate need for gun reform. He cited that there was a gun for every man, woman and child in the US whilst criticising his own country’s laws or lack thereof in this regard. In the US, any attempt made towards gun control reforms is met by hostile opposition by the very powerful gun lobby in the country. US presidents have been pushed to a corner over the years by this lobby that believes Americans have the right to be armed to protect themselves. It is a mindset that must be defeated. Americans are no longer the lone cowboys of yesteryear; they are everyday people with everyday frustrations anger and other psychological issues, and these people need to have strict laws in place to prevent them from purchasing guns without much trouble. The argument that it is not guns that kill people but people who kill people is redundant. If guns were not available so easily, many mass shooters would not have turned to this option. There is no time like the present for the US to do something about this very real problem. These are lone acts of domestic terrorism and they must be dealt with as such. *