Gun Culture in the USA: A Perspective From Across the Pond

This year, the USA has had to endure two horrifying mass shootings in a time period of less than a month and a half. On July 20th a citizen walked into a cinema in Aurora Colorado and shot 70 people, killing 12 of them; with a 12 gauge shotgun, two semi-automatic rifles, one handgun and thousands of rounds of ammunition, all of which was purchased legally. On August 5th the news reached our screens of a shooting at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, in which six people lost their lives to a man wielding another legally acquired weapon. Although the motives for these dreadful crimes were clearly not linked, the latter being an act of "domestic terrorism" from a white supremacist and the former appearing to be motivated by little and are but the result of the actions of a mentally unstable man. They are however, related in the sense that they are part of a much wider social problem in America; a destructive gun culture that polarises opinion across the country.

Media coverage of each attack differed greatly. you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Aurora shootings received far more coverage because it really did seem that way. The events of July 20th saw weeks of media attention that focused on all aspects of the story; from the aspect of human tragedy to the technical aspects of police response, perhaps the relative lack of coverage of the events in Wisconsin can be best explained by the one aspect of the Aurora shootings the media focused on too much: the killer himself. When events like these occur, when an individual or a small number of people commit multiple murders, the media is explicitly advised to avoid focusing on the identity of the killer(s) or dramatising the event with the sound of police sirens or even giving the event too much coverage, as when this happens a similar event is likely to occur in the weeks or months that follow. This is because it becomes evident to prospective killers the ease at which they can become infamous and/or give their beliefs or cause recognition. However, a cynic may argue that the reason for the relative lack of coverage is that western media saw the shootings in Wisconsin as an issue for the Sikh community and therefor not as news worthy as the deaths of a predominantly white cinema going group, but as I said that's just a cynics view. However it is not fair at all to say that this was the reaction of the entire American population, in New York alone hundreds took to the streets in a candlelight visual promoting religious tolerance and tighter gun control, and the President stressed how the Sikh population were an important part of the "broader American family."

What can be said of these events effect on the rest of American society? Well statistics say that guns sales surged in the wake of each shooting, not only in the areas surrounding each tragedy but throughout the nation as a whole, all the while gun enthusiasts perpetuate the ridiculous myth that "more guns means less gun crime" which appears to as widely believed in the USA as the bible. It is already clear that gun control will be an important issue in the upcoming presidential election; indeed it has been in many elections in the past and I imagine that the rhetoric used this time will not differ greatly from rhetoric used in past elections. The right will embark on an impassioned, nationalist campaign that will reference the 2nd amendment to the constitution and note that any attempt to endanger this archaic part of american law is "unpatriotic." inadvertently justifying the deaths of all estimated 31,000 citizens who will lose their lives to gun violence each year in the USA. Gun control will be a crucial issue for Obama, an opportunity to win back the disillusioned liberals of his nation that he so sorely let down by failing to deliver the social change that he promised in his first election bid. 

Ultimately, not only must the law change to at the very least make it more difficult for private citizens to acquire deadly weapons, but social attitude towards guns has to be dramatically altered to ensure events such as those in Colorado and Wisconsin do not happen again. The average american man or woman must no longer have to feel that the only way they can protect their families, is with live firearms at arms reach at all times. The 31,000 easily preventable deaths that occur each year as a result of guns cannot be justified by a sense of patriotism, the right wing's opposition to gun control must not be seen as a defense of the American way of life. The prevention of deaths attributed to gun crime and the removal of the fear of gun related violence is a moral issue, one that must be addressed by President Obama in the months preceding the election, all as part of an obligation to both the citizens he is charged to protect (in this case from themselves) and an obligation to those who have needlessly lost their lives to an out of control gun culture.