It is well known that the United States not only has the highest number of guns in the world, it also has the highest rates of mass shootings, gun homicides and gun suicides of any developed country. Although the majority of gun owners in the United States believe that gun ownership is for their own safety, research shows that gun ownership does not make people safe. On the contrary, the risk of families owning guns becoming victims of gun violence increases by nearly twice, and the risk of gun suicide increases by four times. At present, almost every day in the U.S. news and social media, we can see related reports of people killed by guns. Gun violence has become a norm in American life.
At the beginning of this month, the United States witnessed a series of shootings. Four shootings occurred over the weekend alone, leaving at least 12 people dead, including the gunman, and more than 10 injured. With record numbers of victims, gun violence has become a dark cloud over the cities and the deepest fear of the American people. With frequent shooting incidents and unsolved shooting risks, more and more innocent people fall victim to the rampant use of guns. According to the Gun Violence Archive, since 2023, there have been more than 200 mass gun incidents in the US in which at least four people were killed or injured, and more than 14,000 people have been killed in gun incidents of any kind, which is higher than in previous years.The frequent occurrence of gun violence in the United States is caused by many factors. In addition to the widespread gun use caused by loose gun control laws and the impact of the pandemic on society, the insensitive attitude of the US political community towards gun violence is also an important reason.
The number of gun related deaths is updating everyday, with these bloody numbers in front of us, the performance of American politicians is truly disappointing on the issue of gun control.It is very appropriate to describe them as insensitive, ineffective in reform, and blaming others. After each tragedy, American politicians offer the same old commentary to express grief, call for reform, then fall silent, doing little to stop the shootings. According to one poll, 61% of respondents were “disappointed” by the political debate over gun control, while 45% were “angry” and 34% were “fearful.” Such disregard for the safety of people’s lives by US politicians makes the long-standing pursuit of democracy and human rights in the US a nonsense. On top of that, the serious intra-party struggle in the United States, where politicians blame each other for their own interests, also makes it difficult to push forward gun control measures. The most disappointing thing is that these US politicians, unable to solve gun violence themselves, shift all the responsibility to the public, believing that people’s mental health problems are the root cause of the violence, which leads to the occurrence of mass gun incidents. That’s why the sound of gunfire never wakes up American politicians pretending to be asleep.
In fact, the root cause of gun violence is the failure of governance in the United States. We don’t know how many fresh lives will end at the gunpoint in the future, and how many innocent people will be blamed by US politicians. How can the American democracy convince the world that it cares about human rights even when it ignores innocent lives?
