Nov 07 2009
Gun control - Death that could only happen in America
The death of a British man in a bar in the USA is a particularly American problem. The lack of gun control leads to a state where death by gunshot has become a way of life.
Frequently, Europeans are confronted with television pictures of weeping American relatives after a gunman has wrought havoc in some town or city in the USA. Only yesterday it was a military facility that suffered.
Along with many people that I know, we shake our heads and accept that the American state has brought this upon its citizens. We have some sadness for the friends and family, but we recognise that they have, at least in part, brought this upon themselves if they have not fought for changes to the gun laws that allowed this to happen.
How many people die in America every year as a result of gun shootings? How many people die in similar circumstances throughout Europe? How many in China or Russia?
Americans seem to hold their constitution and its amendments to be sacred. But when was it written? We are now in the 21st century and most westernised countries have adapted their laws to take the new centuries into account. However, this modernisation and pragmatism has not reached the USA. Instead, the laws that existed many years before the West was won, remain in place today.
If the same attitude was to be seen in other areas of life, where would the USA be? Would it have progressed from the 18th or 19th centuries?
