Editorial: Another tragedy, another outrage

There must be something terribly wrong with the system that makes buying military-grade weapons off the shelf cheaper and more accessible than buying health insurance cover. For all its sheen of freedom, democracy, equal opportunity and liberal values, America’s worst kept secret is the menace of mass shootings. One fails to understand why any legal system should allow an unhinged teenager to buy automatic weapons virtually unquestioned and to unleash terror on unsuspecting people. This is the stark reality of America, a country where the gun lobby holds much more clout than the healthcare industry. The mass shootings in America have, over years, turned into a macabre ritual and acquired a sense of numbing familiarity. The latest shooting at a primary school in South Texas that claimed 21 lives, including 19 children, comes as a grim reminder of how an unbridled gun culture has been playing havoc with society. Guns overtook car crashes to become the leading cause of death for American children in 2020, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month. The 18-year-old Texas shooter had first gunned down his grandmother before going on the rampage at the school. This was the country’s worst such incident in a decade. There have already been 27 school shootings this year alone. Every time a mass shooting incident happens, a familiar charade of statements and condemnations follows. After some protests here and there and demands for gun control laws, it is business as usual again.

Enough has been debated over reforming the present set of gun laws. It is time for action. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” was how President Joe Biden responded to the Texas shooting, reflecting a sense of helplessness rather than a firm resolve to end the menace. Robb Elementary School will join the roll call of school shootings along with Sandy Hook and the Parkland shooting. The killing of innocent schoolchildren has reignited the debate over guns in America but has not brought it any closer to a resolution. Politicians recognise this as a problem almost unique to America which has more than 300 million guns, roughly one for every citizen. But it’s a problem that politics seem incapable of solving. Deeply entrenched views on gun control are not changed in response to events like the Texas tragedy. During his tenure, Barack Obama did make some sincere efforts to check the menace of gun culture but could not get support from Congress. He had aggressively advocated for more gun-control and safety measures and called his failure to pass significant reforms one of the greatest frustrations of his presidency. The innocent could be safer only if the country bans assault rifles with large ammunition magazines that are used by the mass murderers.

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