The United States of America is at gunpoint; literally. Americans, day in and day out find their heads at the tip of a pistol or get shot dead when going about their daily business. The media is rife with stories of students killing their teachers and fellow students, spouses killing their partners, kids, and themselves, and even religious fanatics wiping large numbers of people off the earth’s surface just because they can.
Of course, it suffices to say that the country is at the mercy of merciless, aimless, and senseless killers who have made it such that the blood of the innocent doesn’t cease to flow.
Many people have called it a public health crisis. Some have said it is a security crisis. Well, call it whatever you must, but what we must all agree on is that the bloodshed has become too much; the madness has gone on for too long, and the United States must act now!
Gun violence seems to happen within the space of a few minutes, but the effects last through the longest of times, and probably never end, even when all the time in the world passes.
Many lives and families in the US have experienced the terrible, unimaginable, and irreversible pain resulting from gun violence. Knowing no age and tribe, the gun has taken the lives of locals and foreigners alike, migrants and settlers, parents and children, young, and old, and what is left behind is a family in mourning, never to be consoled, no matter the words that are spoken or the funds that are paid in compensation.
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Gun violence has taken many forms and continues to take many more. Some of these common forms of gun violence are assaults, homicides, gun suicides, school shootings, domestic violence involving guns, police shootings, and even accidental shootings.
The statistics of gun violence and deaths are as gory as a horror movie; but this time, the United States, the movie, and not watching from the sidelines, and if not careful, it might become the victim that dies the most painful death at the hands of the villain.
According to statistics from The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit group that tracks shootings in the US, there were 647 mass shootings in 2022, just as gun violence killed over 44,000 people in the US in the same year.
At this rate, more people die from gunshots in a single month in the United States than during an entire year in other equally developed, high-income countries.
The number of people who have been threatened, wounded or witnessed acts of gun violence has increased by millions.
The overall death rate from gun violence in reached its highest level in the past three decades with casualty rates almost reaching a never-before-seen record. While the US saw a large number of unexplainable gun deaths, many of these shootings were also motivated by hate or a skewed sense of reasoning.
Experts and analysts are also linking bias-motivated gun violence with a rise in toxic discourses and hate groups targeted at the vulnerable in the US.
But whether you see it as a hate crime, antisemitism, drug-induced actions, or acts caused by mental instability, the problem and the demand remain the same. People are being killed senselessly, and it must stop!
The United States must stop all its rhetoric and empty words of concern, complaints, and threats, and tell itself the truth, or perhaps; uncover the problem behind the problem if you wish to call it that.
Ugly as it might be, let’s face the truth: The United States’ firearms law and other related policies are more than other developed nations. The Second Amendment gives citizens a federal right to own firearms, just as states have different regulations surrounding gun ownership and usage.
Across many states, citizens can own guns for protection or hunting; and these same guns that get used against the defenceless neighbour next door by the owner who was licensed to have a gun but probably never should have been. Despite the very obvious flaw that needs immediate correction, there continues to be a culture of silence around gun violence, only allowing for shouts of anger when another life is lost, before going back to the deathly silence that produces nothing but more death.
This hush-hush must stop; Joe Biden must wake up from his slur and take actions that will turn things 180 degrees in a positive direction for the country. The lawmakers must also wake up and avoid being divided against party lines and ideologies, and put lives first, as it is the only thing that matters, after all, has been said and done.
Here is a 4-point solution that the United States, led by its President should implement if it truly wants to see an end to gun violence and deaths.
First, the Federal Gun Laws must be reviewed and tightened. The Biden administration needs to pass the legislation that will save the United States from becoming a valley of death. This legislation needs to increase the criteria for gun ownership and improve background checks for the purchase of guns and ammunition. There is a need for a wholesome crackdown on the trafficking of firearms, as well as high-capacity magazines in the public domain. Citizens shouldn’t be allowed to own military-style weapons, just as the manufacturers of firearms should be held responsible in cases of misuse, trafficking, or other unwholesome practices.
Of course, this legislation would not be complete without setting conditions for the seizure and removal of weapons from people who are prone to harming themselves and others or showing signs of mental or emotional instability. Police reforms ought to be a top priority in these legislations, just as judicial reforms should go hand in hand.
The second solution point is to ensure that every department, agency, and program integrates gun violence prevention in their mission to stem this crisis. There is a need for maximum investment and intervention in evidence-based gun violence prevention and intervention throughout the United States, especially in areas more prone to gun violence, such as migrant communities.
The United States, as a third point of call, needs to look into the presence and activities of online companies and social media platforms, and users that promote violence and hate.
With ever-rising cases of white supremacy, political extremism, racism, and even domestic terrorism, added to the lax gun laws, social media conversations have further stoked the fires and led to insurrections, racial and religious attacks, and even neighbourhood violence and deaths.
Social media platforms should cease to allow extremist conversations, conspiracy theories, and racial debates to take place, as they have, and continue to cause violence, not only in the United States but the world over.
Finally, the United States must come down from its high horse and exalted position where it thinks that it doesn’t need any help with its problems because it does; and quickly too. There is a dire need for public debates, the inclusion of new voices and ideas, as well as political coalitions to achieve the gun reforms needed in the United States. All stakeholders, including security operatives, health workers, religious leaders, businessmen, gun dealers, and owners, as well as public servants, need to come to terms with their responsibilities, make informed contributions and set the ball rolling for a new America that is free of gun violence and death. Biden and the United States; The time is now!
