Gun violence is a contemporary global human rights issue. Anyone can be affected by firearm violence worldwide, but the rising trend of gun-related injuries in several states is alarming in the USA. The country is witnessing a surge in gun violence as the gun purchase rate has reached its highest level in 2021 and 2022. As a result, gun deaths are rising horribly in the USA and non-whites are becoming major targets. It is not only having lasting impacts on victims and their families but also deteriorating the overall human rights situation in the country.
Regarding this, a young man from an expatriate Bangladeshi community in the U.S. was gunned down by miscreants in Missouri state of United States of America (USA) early Wednesday. The victim is 22-year-old Romim Uddin Ahmed, a student of Computer Science at a local college and simultaneously working at a gas station. It is believed that the motive behind the crime was to rob the victim’s car and cash.
Bangladeshi journalist Mohammad Manjurul Haq, who resides in the United States, said that Romim was working at the gas station when a group of miscreants tried to break into his parked car. When Romim intervened, a gunman targeted him and fired. He was later taken to the hospital by the police, where he was declared dead. This is a clear sign of gun-related violence. Romim Uddin Ahmed, however, can serve as a symbol for those who are affected by the severe legal and security situations in the US.
The US government seems to have allowed gun violence to become a human rights crisis.
When it comes to promoting or patronaging democracy and human rights across the globe, the United States of America (USA) shows up faster than anyone. But the same country displays utter negligence toward its multicultural society. Unfortunately, the country is facing a lot of human rights violation issues domestically at the hands of law enforcement agencies. The rising trend of extrajudicial killing in several states also provides an unsafe situation in the USA.
As mentioned earlier, extrajudicial killing by law enforcement has become a new trend in the USA. Arif Saeed Faisal, a young man from the Bangladeshi community who was residing overseas, was shot, and killed by police earlier this year in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The sole child of the family, Faisal’s killing was thus characterized by many as a “racist act by white police officers.”
American society is innately racial and racially discriminatory. The nation’s black residents have endured appalling prejudice for a very long period. According to the Washington Post, black Americans are killed by police at a rate that is more than double that of white Americans. Black Americans, however, make up less than 14% of the country’s total population.
After George Floyd was choked to death, authorities in the United States killed Bangladeshi brothers Ramim and Faisal, setting a precedent for extrajudicial executions and human rights abuses. The time has come for the United States to stop caring about other countries’ protection of democracy and human rights and instead concentrate on enhancing its domestic law and order.
Numerous figures demonstrate the disturbing rise in gun-related violence, including extrajudicial executions and hate crimes, as well as the systemic violation of human rights. Along with these, police violence is becoming a daily problem for US society. Additionally, the government is failing to start or enact efficient policies. A culture of impunity is equally prevalent in the case of extrajudicial executions. The guardian of global human rights appears to be struggling lately at home.
Among wealthier and developed countries, the US is an outlier when it comes to firearm violence. It seems the US government has allowed gun violence to become a human rights crisis. Wide access to firearms and loose regulations lead to more than 39,000 men, women, and children being killed with guns each year in the US. Due to the gun culture, the US has topped in civilian guns owing in the top. It now has 120 guns per 100 population, a number even higher than Yemen, a country currently in one of the worst civil wars of recent times.
The writer is a freelance columnist.