There are so many simple, clear steps that lawmakers can take to reduce the epidemic of gun violence in America. The following policies are actually supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans and even many gun owners:
Universal background checks.
Closing the gun show loophole.
Banning assault weapons such as AR-15s.
Banning bump stocks.
Addressing America’s mental health crisis.
Redoubling our efforts to combat white supremacy and domestic terrorism.
The Democratic U.S. House passed two bills that would accomplish many of these goals earlier this year, but Mitch McConnell and the GOP—at the bidding of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun manufacturers—won’t allow the bills to come up for a vote in the Senate. They won’t even allow federal funding for research into gun violence.
The endless gun atrocities are killing as many people as an international war. The word “obscene” is inadequate to describe this situation, made worse by the President’s pathetic response, made, apparently, reluctantly. It seems the United States cannot win a conventional war overseas and won’t lift a finger to halt an extremist pro-gun war at home, indiscriminate but mainly on immigrants and people of colour. There is a moral vacuum among right-wing voters and politicians, many proclaiming their religiosity.
My British father had a sporting gun. It was locked up when not in use, and the lock-up was inspected every three months by the local police. Moreover, if you wanted a gun you had to be 21 (from memory) and had to show that you had been on a gun safety course. When I asked my father whether he thought this onerous he replied, “ No, its common sense”. But then he valued human life, all of it.
This weekend, gunmen killed at least 29 people in back-to-back mass shootings—in El Paso, Texas, in an attack apparently fueled by anti-immigrant racism and white supremacy—and in Dayton, Ohio. These were the 250th and 251th mass shootings this year in America.1. In comparison, there’s been one mass shooting this year in Canada and three in Mexico.2.
The main driver of the migration North is climate change and what it is doing to poor people on the land, that is, they can no longer make a living, so they move North in desperation. This is fueling the resentment and hatred of American white extremists. Regrettably, this is going to get worse with every year unless something drastic is done to ameliorate climate change, and we will see it in Europe with migrants from the African Continent, to name but two growing crises.