#BTEditorial – Mass killings and gun rights

It is difficult to stay silent and ignore the carnage that is taking place in the United States of America where too many citizens have become so numb to the frequent mass shootings of innocent people. Frankly, the killings are acts of terrorism which the authorities there have failed to label as such.

The murders have become so routine that we too, who follow the international cable news networks, have come to accept this as part of the norm for Americans.

We can only grieve for the parents, relatives, and friends of the 19 children and two teachers who lost their lives in a condemnable killing spree at the hands of an 18-year-old in the state of Texas.

Even more heartbreaking was the report that the teachers died trying to protect their young charges with their own bodies. There is no circumstance where this type of incident could be normal.

As we begin to learn more about the actions of the killer and what may have motivated him to carry out such a heinous crime, it has been revealed he purchased the high-powered military styled arms at a gun shop on his 18th birthday.

Therein lies the problem. Legitimate accessibility to guns in the United States needs urgent and sustained attention.

And though some in Barbados may have the misguided belief that it is “their problem” and not ours, they should reconsider that position. It is documented that there are more guns in America than there are people.

That spells trouble for us. For as the American market becomes saturated, gun manufacturers must, of necessity, find markets for their excess production.

We  have been told that American gun manufacturers have lobbied political influencers in the United States to supply arms to various sides in ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. The more wars, the more arms sales, the more guns are produced.

What is most alarming is that the slaying of innocent children and teachers will not move things one iota at the political level.

There is this obsession with Second Amendment rights which sees it necessary for people to have the right to “keep and bear arms”.

Unless some group in the United States is aware of a plan to trigger another civil war, we on the outside find the notion quite ridiculous.

There is no more need for an armed militia to protect Americans from their Government, than there is a need to arm Canadian citizens to protect them from their government is Ottawa.

It is why no other developed country on the planet experiences these frequent mass killings like the US.

Our American friends seem not concerned that the number one cause of mortality among American children is gun violence. Were that record to be held by any other country, it would be the headline in the annual United States State Department Report.

“It’s disturbing to me as a policymaker that we have been able to do little other than create greater access to these militarized weapons to just about anyone who would want them,” said Texas state Senator Roland Gutierrez, who is a Democrat.

Barbados and its neighbours have never been liberal with the ownership of firearms. The licensing process involving law enforcement is deliberately burdensome, as it seeks to ensure that legal ownership of guns is by responsible individuals who appreciate the obligations that come with such a privilege.

But our problem in Barbados is less with legitimate gun ownership and more with those who smuggle arms into the island for profit and greed. They are not concerned with the deadly outcomes but with the profit from sale of the contraband.

It is difficult to be hopeful that the gun violence problem in the United States will get any better. And as such, we in Barbados and the region too will continue to feel the spillover effects of that country’s failure to address the proliferation and sale of guns.

We must continue the fight and to put all the resources required to keep illegal guns from landing on our shores.