"The way to reduce gun violence is to convince ordinary,'responsible' gun owners that their weapons make them, their families, and those around them very unsafe."
This is the new issue of Atlantic Monthly, scheduled to be published in October, in its pre-release long article "How to Persuade Americans to Give Up Their Guns", a realistic American problem and its solution.
But for today's American society, it is too idealistic to advise people to give up guns. Because there are bloody realities all the time to tell people what an impossible task it is to control the guns of the United States. Let’s take a look at what happened during the Labor Day weekend and the long holiday that just passed:
U.S. President Biden made a speech in April this year on the increasing number of shooting incidents in the United States, saying that "gun violence is another epidemic in the United States." The high number of shooting cases, the increasing proliferation of guns, and extremely loose control measures have made it difficult for the United States to really cure this "stubborn disease."
The epidemic continues to make people desperate?
As the number of confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in the United States once again surged, another public crisis, gun violence, is also hitting the country, which has become a problem that it has to face seriously.
According to the latest statistics from the US "Gun Violence Archives" (GVA) website, as of September 7, local time, various gun violence incidents across the United States this year have caused 13,979 deaths (excluding suicides); mass shootings (causing more than 4 people) Casualties) have occurred 481 cases.
The frequent occurrence of gun cases has also resulted in a boom in the purchase and sale of guns. A Pew survey showed that before the outbreak, about 30% of American adults owned guns, and about 36% of them either had guns in the past or planned to own them in the future.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the sales of guns in the United States have increased by 65% compared to 2019, reaching more than 23 million; and the number of guns purchased for the first time is considerable. After entering 2021, this surge will continue.
Many people attribute the epidemic to the surge in gun sales and gun violence in the United States as a causal relationship.
The Associated Press article stated that as the epidemic spreads across the United States, the resulting blockade measures and the reduction of police response measures have caused many people's safety concerns, resulting in their "overwhelming demand" for guns and ammunition, and continued gun sales. The surge has left the ammunition racks of many gun shops "empty".
The deterioration of social security has exacerbated the panic among the vulnerable groups. With the increase in various types of hate crimes, the proportion of first-time gun buyers of African Americans and Asian-Pacific Americans has risen sharply.
The CBS of the United States (CBS) published an article titled "Gun Violence: Another Epidemic in the United States" and pointed out that the boom in buying guns among ethnic minorities stems from the disproportionate harm they have suffered in gun violence in the United States.
"A child is accidentally shot almost every day"
In the United States, where more than 300 million people own nearly 400 million guns, buying guns has long been commonplace. But at the same time, the extensive background investigations and the shrinking of gun lessons have made the guns that are spreading throughout the civilian population increasingly out of control.
The first victim is the child. According to the latest statistics, more than 1,000 minors aged 17 and below have died from gun violence in the United States this year.
Another data shows that during the epidemic, accidental shootings of children in the United States increased by 31%. “Almost every day, a child is accidentally shot.” The surge in gun sales across the country and the increase in the number of children living at home due to the lockdown of the epidemic have all contributed to the surge in accidental shootings of children.
Research from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University also shows that most gun owners do not have safe custody and storage of their weapons, so that many children who can easily reach them unintentionally tell their family or friends Shot.
In addition, the mentality of minors is just as vulnerable to the epidemic as adults. According to surveys, 14% of children in families who bought guns in the first few months of the outbreak developed symptoms of depression, and many children even committed suicide with guns. At present, suicide has become the second leading cause of death for American teenagers after accidents.
Who can control American guns
Due to the constitutional "blessing" and political pressure from related interest groups, the manufacture, sale, and use of guns in the United States has long become a huge chain of interests. The resulting powerful gun-ownership makes it difficult for the U.S. Congress and the government to do anything about gun control issues, and can only allow gun violence to continue to worsen.
On the one hand, the supply of guns in the country is in short supply, and on the other hand, profit-only arms dealers irresponsibly export gun accidents. Earlier last month, the Mexican government filed a lawsuit against several gun manufacturers in the United States, accusing them of engaging in reckless business activities such as providing illegal weapons to violent drug trafficking gangs, killing thousands of people.
Although Biden once said that “gun violence, as another epidemic, is humiliating the United States in the world” and has repeatedly expressed his determination to control guns, so far there are few real gun control laws in the United States. Even some of the administrative measures announced by the Biden administration are difficult to obtain legal support due to the lack of bipartisan consensus, and ultimately become empty talk.
As the "Atlantic Monthly" article said, almost all developed countries strictly control guns, with the exception of the United States, where gun violence is everywhere. "The gun you use to fight fear is itself something you should be afraid of. The gun is a lie!"