For many families, the new school year is an exciting new start. But for Garza, a citizen of Youvaldi, Texas, the United States, it is a painful reminder. More than three months ago, a gunman broke into the local Rob Primary School and killed 19 students and two teachers, including Garza's only daughter. At that time, US President Biden promised to do something practical and signed the so-called most important gun control bill in 30 years in June. However, the tragedies caused by innocent people's bloody guns have not decreased.
In the past weekend, the shooting in Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York... witnessed another "bloody weekend" in the United States. According to the latest data released on the website of the US "Gun Violence Archive" on the 12th, more than 31000 people have died of gun violence in the US since this year, with an average of 122 people dying every day.
Gun violence has become a deep "fear" of American society. Among them, the campus is the hardest hit area of gun violence. A recent University of Michigan study shows that 75% of American teenagers believe that shooting has become their main source of stress. It is now the beginning of school in autumn, and the unique scene in many American campuses is that students should be ready for the shooting incident when they are not studying. For example, in Texas, since June, school districts throughout the state have been required to conduct 16 hours of "Gunner Response Training", including shooting and other contents.
On the social platform, American teachers shared their skills and experience in simulating campus shootings. One teacher wrote: If you mistake the gunshot sound for the sound of balloon explosion or other noises, you will miss the golden escape time.
In the world's most developed countries, why are gun violence crimes emerging in endlessly? Analysts pointed out that this is not only because the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States on the right to hold guns is hard to shake, but also because of the differences between the two parties on the issue of gun control. The United States has the largest number of private firearms in the world. Statistics show that Americans are 25 times more likely to die in a shooting incident than other high-income countries.
At the same time, the kidnapping of interest groups makes gun violence hard to return. In the United States, gun manufacturing and trading is a big industry, and the market size will reach 70.5 billion dollars in 2021. As one of the most influential economic groups in the United States, the National Rifle Association (NRA), in addition to providing huge political contributions, spends a lot of money every year to promote the "importance of legal gun possession" and hinder the implementation of the government's gun control measures.
In addition, since the outbreak of COVID-19, racial discrimination and polarization between the rich and the poor have intensified in the United States. The latest data released by the US Department of Labor showed that the US consumer price index rose 8.3% year-on-year in August, higher than the expected 8.1%. Under multiple pressures, people's dissatisfaction has risen, which has increasingly stimulated the occurrence of violence. According to a report recently released by the Association of Police Chiefs of Major Cities in the United States, there were at least 237000 violent crimes in major cities in the United States from January to June this year, an increase of 4.4% over the same period last year.
On June 6 local time, Americans gathered on Capitol Hill to demand gun safety reform.
It is hard to imagine that every time a large-scale shooting incident occurs in the United States, the sales of guns increase rather than decrease, and the society falls into a vicious circle. US President Biden signed a "bipartisan compromise version" gun control bill in June, but it did nothing. According to the statistics of the website "Gun Violence Archives", within a month after the bill came into force, various gun related violence incidents still occurred frequently. In July alone, there were more than 70 large-scale shootings across the United States.
"Shooting incidents are becoming more and more common in the United States, and almost everyone lives in fear."—— Behind the New York Times' comment, American interest groups are enjoying the continuous wealth growth brought about by gun manufacturing and trading, and American politicians are getting a steady stream of political contributions. Under the hypocritical "American democracy" signboard, the United States is still far away from waking up from the nightmare of shooting.