They just don’t get it, do they?
Our neighbours to the south, I mean. Only three weeks into the
new year and they already had experienced 11 school shootings.
Last week’s Kentucky school shooting, which left two
15-year-olds dead and 18 other students wounded, was the 50th school
shooting in this academic year.
There probably will be another this week, and another next week
because research has found that since 2013 a school shooting occurs somewhere
in America every week. Some are suicides and some do not involved killing or
injuries, but one a week is shocking.
Also, an FBI study found that of all shooter episodes in the
U.S., 25 per cent were in education environments and the number is rising.
Gun death figures are totally insane south of the border. In
2013, 1.3 per cent of all deaths in the U.S. resulted from guns. Between 1968
and 2011 a total of 1.4 million people died from gunshots. That is more than
the population of Dallas, Texas or San Diego, California.
Not only are the figures ridiculous, so are the arguments
against any form of gun control, or research into why the U.S. has so many more
gun deaths than any other so-called civilized society.
The U.S. Congress has rejected efforts to have the Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) research the underlying causes of gun
violence.
John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives at the
time of that rejection, said the CDC’s job is to look only at diseases that
harm public health. He added:
“I’m sorry, but a gun is not a disease. Guns don’t kill people —
people do. And when people use weapons in a horrible way, we should condemn the
actions of the individual and not blame the action on some weapon.”
A gun may not be a disease yet thousands of people in the U.S. die
by the gun every year.
The country just keeps burying its gunshot victims and moving on
without trying to find out what is causing the epidemic, or trying to cure it.
Those who have lost children to gun violence no doubt would welcome some CDC
research into why the country is so gun violent.
Americans, however, continue to wander about in a daze,
increasingly numbed by the gun violence around them. The outrage over the
latest mass shooting is lesser than the outrage from the one before, and more
short-lived.
Many no longer can distinguish between reality and the constant
violence they see on their screens. Defence mechanisms have kicked in, allowing
them to disassociate from what’s happening around them.
We
in Canada should not feel superior. Our gun violence is many times less than
that of the U.S., however, shootings in our major cities have been increasing
every year.
There
is gunfire every day in Toronto and shootings no longer are uncommon in cities
like Halifax, Edmonton and even Regina.
However,
Canadians at least are willing to talk about what is behind gun violence and
what we can do to prevent it. For instance, Halifax police have appointed an
in-house research co-ordinator to study the problem. Surrey, part of the
greater Vancouver area, now has a task force working on gun and gang violence.
And
the Canadian Public Health Association has been advocating a public health
approach to ending gun violence.
More
gun control laws are not the answer for Canada. We have effective gun control
laws and we have research that shows more stringent control will simply hurt
responsible gun owners while not getting at the real problems.
Illegal
guns and streets gangs account for much of Canada’s gun violence. We need to
corral the gangs, and keep them from getting guns, most of which are imported
and
obtained
illegally.
The
U.S. needs to open its mind and begin talking about gun violence and how to
start putting a lid on it.
That’s
a good thought, but not likely to happen. Kentucky, where the two young teens
were blown away at school last week, has been considering legislation to allow
people with concealed weapons permits to bring handguns onto public school
campuses.
Fight gun violence with more guns. Another terrific idea from
America’s gun sales folks.
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