Donald Trump has dismissed the massacre at the Florida school as the act of a ‘mentally disturbed’ person. He blamed the FBI for failure to prevent it and holds violent video games and movies responsible for the school shootings.
On the Valentine’s Day, the US witnessed the most deadliest school shooting in its history, after the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 that killed 32 people. An expelled student — Nikolas Cruz — walked into Majory Stoneman Douglas High School, armed with a semi automatic AR-15 rifle, opened fire, killing 17 and injuring 15 persons.
America is the most violent country, with 42 % of civilian arms in the world owned by the US — 112 guns for 100 people. Since the killing of 20 first graders in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newton, there are 239 school shootings in the US — five in a month. And the number of gun homicides is staggering 13,000 a year. One in ten Americans kills himself, while six out of ten fail in their attempt to kill. In 2012, more than 40,000 Americans had committed suicide with guns, as per the American Association of Suicidology. Nationally, guns are used in half of all successful suicides, particularly by the middle aged 45-54, who realise their youthful ambitions would never be fulfilled. As Obama said, “no other advanced nation endures the kind of gun violence seen in the US”.
According to the Violence Policy Centre study ‘When Men Murder Women,’ more than 1,600 women were murdered by men in 2013, the most common weapon being a gun. In 2013, South Carolina had the highest rate of women murders, followed by Alaska, New Mexico, Louisiana and Nevada. The gun violence kills more than 33,000 Americans every year. The US had nearly 53,000 violent incidents and 330 mass shootings in 2015. Among the juveniles, serving in correctional facilities, 86% had owned a gun, with 66% acquiring their first gun at 14 and 65% owning three or more firearms, illegally from family, friends and drug cartels.
The gun violence is rooted in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution that legalised the acquisition of guns. It is a fallacious assumption that guns guarantee personal security. In the aftermath of Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr assassinations, the Gun Control Act, 1968 was enacted. But this has not proved adequate to regulate and control the guns and check the gun violence.
Obama had voiced his frustration with the Congress refusal to pass gun control legislation. He wanted to make it harder to buy weapons and regulate the sale of guns through licence and registration. He believed the violence in society could be checked by shifting the emphasis on ethical behavior, good parenting and good education. He made a prophetic remark: “We do not have to accept this carnage as the price of freedom.”
Donald Trump has dismissed the massacre at the Florida school as the act of a ‘mentally
