2 minute read
International WHY ARE THERE SO MANY
from 788_English
INTERNATIONAL WHY ARE THERE SO MANY MASS SHOOTINGS IN AMERICA?
Why do most mass shootings in public places occur in America, the world’s first power? So far this year, over 250 mass shootings have been reported in different cities across the U.S. (*)
Advertisement
Mass shootings always reignite U.S. gun control debate. Why can a 21-year-old, who has been recently allowed to buy alcohol, purchase in just a few steps a semiautomatic firearm that could lead to a massacre in a matter of minutes? It makes no sense at all.
The only explanation behind the high rate of mass shootings in America is the astronomical number of guns in the hands of fundamentalists and psychopaths. So the question is: Why do lawmakers, after all the bloodbaths, continue to fail in their efforts to limit mass access to guns?
America is the world’s most heavily armed country, with an average of one gun per capita (around 300 million people). In other words, Americans account for about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world’s guns.
A survey by Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins from the University of California found that 133 mass shootings have occurred from 2000 and 2014 in the United States. Only two were reported in Finland, killing 18 people, and only one in Switzerland, killing 14. The difference is clear.
In 2013, American gun-related deaths included 21,175 suicides, 11,208 homicides and 505 deaths caused by an accidental discharge. That same year in Japan, a country with one-third America’s population, guns were involved in only 13 deaths.
This means an American is about 300 times more
likely to die from gun violence than a Japanese person. U.S. gun ownership rate is 150 times higher than Japan’s. That gap between 150 and 300 shows that gun ownership statistics alone cannot explain American mass shootings.
Other researchers believe that the Texas mass shooting was clearly a racially motivated hate crime. The alarming reality is that in America – which is on the alert for jihadists just as the rest of the world – the concern about extreme right-wing terrorist groups and individuals has dramatically risen.
In fact, more and more people are accusing President Donald Trump of promoting these massacres with his inflammatory rhetoric against immigrants and minorities. Since his 2016 campaign, the American president has not hesitated to call Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “drug traffickers,” and Muslims “terrorists,” and has not condemned any white supremacist actions. What is more, he constantly insults minorities and has even told American Congresspeople of foreign origin to “go back” to the country where they came from.
Mass murderers in America have very different motivations but many of them share some features, such as being white young men.
Donald Trump and his politicians refuse to establish a stricter gun control and usually claim that these attacks can be attributed to mental health issues. However, FBI profile analysis have found that only 25 percent of shooters had been diagnosed with a mental disorder and they did not normally live isolated.
