Shootings in US, Endless Cycle of Violence

The US is in a state of shock after 19 children were killed by a gunman at their school in Uvalde, Texas.

US President Joe Biden summed up in his address to the notion delivered from the White House, in which he said, "When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?"

"It’s time to turn this pain into action. For every parent, for every citizen in this country, we have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: It’s time to act," Biden added, visibly moved.

The Democratic president also attacked the Republican opposition, which has so far obstructed all his attempts to pass measures in Congress, such as making it mandatory to check criminal records and psychological history for anyone who wants to buy a firearm before selling it.

The conservative camp completely rejects the re-imposition of a ban on selling assault rifles for civilians, a measure in force in the United States between 1994 and 2004 that prohibited civilians from purchasing some types of semi-automatic weapons.

The United States is witnessing frequent incidents of violence and shootings in schools and bars, resulting in dozens of innocent deaths. Among the most famous incident that can be mentioned here is the killing of 20 children in Connecticut in 2012 after a man opened fire on them in a school. Also in 2018, a high school student in Texas killed 8 of his colleagues in an incident that was preceded by several months another incident that killed 17 people.

Each time these incidents revive the country's raging debate about the use and purchase of firearms. While these days in the nearby city of Houston, the National Rifle Association, the most powerful lobby defending the acquisition of firearms, is being held, this issue raises deep pisions among Americans.

The possibility of tightening gun laws remains elusive given opposition from Republicans and other reasons. Boulder city, for example, had previously announced a ban on "machine guns" and large-capacity feeders after a school shooting in Parkland (17 deaths) in Florida (southeast) in 2018, but a judge suspended that ban, in a decision welcomed by the National Rifle Association, the US firearms lobby.

I think that the judge's decision was based on a clear constitutional reference. The possession of firearms by citizens is among the rights recognized by the US Constitution more than two centuries ago. The United States is the only country in the world that allows its citizens to carry weapons, even in the streets, based on the principle of respect for inpidual freedom.

The US Constitution derives the article "the right to keep and bear arms" from the principle that asserts that this right is one of the natural rights; laws related to selling weapons also differ from one US state to another.

In Texas, for example, an inpidual can carry a weapon without a license because the legal arsenal allows him to do so. Statistics indicate that there are more than three hundred million inpidual weapons in the United States, and most of the weapons that the Americans used in the killings are semi-automatic rifles and pistols of various standards, especially those weapons that are characterized by high speed and accuracy of fire. All of this makes the United States one of the countries that witness a lot of attacks and assaults by firearms.

What is even worse than all of this is that indiscriminate shootings increase the demand for weapons on the part of the Americans; US regulations dealing with the sale of firearms are becoming more lenient than in previous years, further ruling out a moratorium on the sale of guns in the country.

Despite the acceleration of these tragic incidents due to the use of inpidual weapons, and despite the increasing demands for tightening laws related to the sale of weapons in the country, the arms sales lobbies have a great influence on the course of laws in congress; these lobbies are very active with members of Parliament and sometimes finance them, which allows them to block many of the bills' proposals, which aim to strengthen control over the purchase and possession of weapons.

These lobbies also finance the presidential elections with millions of dollars. What is even worse than all of this is that indiscriminate shootings increase the demand for weapons on the part of the Americans; US regulations dealing with the sale of firearms are becoming more lenient than in previous years, further ruling out a moratorium on selling guns in the country.