Guns in America – By Dr. Dhanpaul Narine
Guns in America
There is an unhealthy obsession with guns in America. How else can one explain an increase in gun sales after 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech?
The statistics show that after mass executions the sales of guns would spiral.
According to the FBI,‘ the day after the Tucson shootings gun sales in Arizona increased by 60 percent. There were increases in California, Illinois, and New York as well. One of the biggest increases occurred in Ohio where handgun sales went up by 65 percent.’ In the presidential elections of 2008 the sales of firearms went up by 15 per cent because there were fears that the Obama administration might enact gun control laws. No such laws have been passed despite the mountain of debates and newsprint.
It is estimated that there are roughly 88 guns per 100 persons in America. This makes the US one of the most armed nations on the planet. The annual estimate of murders based on shootings is 9, 263 which is about 25 murders per day. According to one report, ‘ No other developed country on earth has as lax gun laws or more weapons than the United States.
The easy access to weapons and the ineffective method of tracking weapons to make sure that they don’t fall in the wrong hands facilitate violent and unstable people in the United States getting weapons with which to kill people.’
The unkindest blows are the ones closest to home. When NYPD Officer Detective Randolph Holder was killed in the prime of his life it opened up once more the debate on guns in America. Officer Holder’s death was not a mass murder that makes the headlines with sickening regularity. However, it hurts every bit as the ones we read about in the various places in the United States. Officer Holder was an immigrant from Guyana who chose to go into a profession to protect his community. As a housing cop he saw the violence in the projects and the easy access to guns. He told his family how unsafe it was to work in the midst of the gangs as criminals could purchase guns at will and create mayhem. But that did not stop him from being a cop.
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Comments
USA culture of death and destruction.😈
Ripe and ready for “revolution” ,”civil war”….21st century style.
Question
Have its leaders not learnt from the mistakes of EU.
SAD situation.🗽
There are more deaths involving vehicle accidents than guns even in NYC where most people do not need to drive because of efficient public transportation. Perhaps the govt should restrict vehicle ownership? No doubt oil companies, the auto industry, auto repair shops, insurance companies, and the govt’s money making DMV and police forfeiture property law asset dept would be all up in arms over this move.
Unlike NYC, public transportation in Northern Va is very costly to deter the public from using it. Why? Because Northern VA is home to many federal govt agencies and offices, many influential govt contractors and many lobbyists representing influential corporations around the country. A subway ride that cost me $2.75 to get from Bayridge to Manhattan, to Queens, or even the Bronx would cost me over $30.00 in Northern VA.
In many European countries, all males over 16/18? are required by the govt to own a gun. Yet those folks don’t go around shooting people. America was founded on violence and has been in a state of perpetual war ever since. Americans do not trust their govt. And this distrust is greatest among gun owners. American society also glorifies violence and war. The states with the toughest gun laws are the states with the most gun violence. The problem is not guns, the problem is society and the culture in projects and encourages. One only has to look at the recent transformation of police forces around the country – the battle tanks and armory they are equipped with, and their response and dealings with the public to realize that America is/ is in a self-made war zone and every citizen is an enemy combatant. This would also explain why the police and the public are being pitted against each other to breed distrust, resentment, and alienation. With the police firmly on the side of the govt, what resources do the citizens have to push back against tyranny? Noam Chomsky said that government’s greatest fear is its armed citizens and he wasn’t talking about those employed, loyal and beholden to govt on the taxpayers dole!
From my cold, dead hands.
GUNS have Changed – The Gun Laws MUST Change