Gun politics
In the aftermath of the horrific attack perpetrated by a young man in an elementary school in central Connecticut in the United States which killed 26 people, 20 of them children, the reaction of most Americans has turned from emotional to political.
Anguished beyond words, President Barack Obama said it all when he remarked that “Our hearts are broken,” adding that his first reaction was not as a president, but as a parent. But even before the President could wipe away the little tear that fell from his eyes, prominent party mates like New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and advocates called for stricter gun control laws. Before anybody knew it, people were chewing on gun ownership and restrictions, what the average American knows as “gun politics”.
Gun control is a controversial issue in the US and many politicians veer away from discussing restrictions and access to firearms. The principle behind gun ownership is protected by the American Constitution, a civil liberty protected by the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Still, gun control advocates are firm that the government has the responsibility to prevent crime, maintain peace and preserve the well-being of citizens. In the course of this contentious debate in past decades, a powerful lobby represented by the National Rifle Association (NRA) has emerged. In 1999, Fortune Survey polled US lawmakers and congressional staffers who viewed the NRA as the most influential lobby group in the country. With 4.3 million members, the NRA is said to be a factor in US elections.
Republicans are against gun control measures while Democrats advocate stricter gun laws. In July after another shooting incident shook the country, President Obama batted for gun control but he reaffirmed his belief in the constitutional right of gun owners. With that, it is easy to understand why the gun control debate reached a stalemate.
However because the victims of the latest shooting incident are children, observers think the Obama administration will push harder by way of supposed ground breaking legislation. Proposals like a national law to toughen background checks, which are not currently required for guns bought from unlicensed, private sellers is on top of the list. It is generally held that had there been a federal law against selling arms to mentally unstable persons, the Newton, Connecticut carnage would not have happened.
Gun politics as an offshoot to the latest American tragedy is significant in the sense that usually people tend to look inwards to analyse the senseless killings that victimized the young that comprise the country’s future generation.
This was the atmosphere in April 1999 in Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado after high school students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris massacred 12 schoolmates and a teacher before they killed themselves. The tragedy had Americans wondering what drove seemingly normal teenagers to commit such violent acts. As usual, mainstream media produced a surfeit of programs and articles analysing what they thought was the worst shooting incident in American history.
Because the perpetrators and victims were teenagers, the international newsmagazine Newsweek came up with a 16-page spread article that focused on American teens—a separate demographic entity numbering 31 million in 2010. They were “bigger, richer, better educated and healthier than any other in history”. But there’s a dark side to these uniquely privileged American teenagers, who gobble information from the Net, engage endlessly in video games and no-holds barred modern culture characterized by sex, drugs and rock music.
In survey after survey, many kids, even those on the honor roll, say they feel increasingly alone and alienated, unable to connect with their parents, teachers and sometimes even classmates.
“They’re desperate for guidance and when they don’t get what they need at home or in school, they cling to cliques or immerse themselves in a universe out of their parents’ reach, a world defined by computer games, TV and movies, where brutality is so common,” Newsweek reported in May 10, 1999.
Every era has its own crisis for the young, but the host of new issues on top of the problems in the culture of punk, Goths and geeks prompted social commentators to ask how well parents know their children.
The “otherness” of it all in the eyes of the average American parent underlines the breakdown and dysfunction of families. Mr. Adam Lanza, who committed suicide after killing his own mother, 5 other adults and 20 school children in Sandy Hook Elementary School simply put it in gruesome terms.
What makes the Newton massacre doubly tragic is the seeming disinclination of society to look inwards and go deeper. This is the same dilemma when Filipinos cry for the restoration of the death penalty as a measure to curb the drug problem and heinous crimes.
Gun ownership, violence, drugs, sex, are just symptoms of a host of other complex societal problems.
