When I first heard the news of the massacre at Las Vegas, I screamed out – “You idiots, ban automatic rifles!” This was also the visceral reaction on the international news outlets – but not in the USA. It was instead, “thoughts and prayers for the victims” and “this is not the time to raise political issues”. A great silence descended on the issue of gun control, at precisely the time when this issue should have been raised to the fore.
Automatic rifles are not useful for:
- Hunting
- Self defense
They are instead military type arms, designed to kill as many people as possible. The NRA and the gun lobby in the USA has so successfully subdued the population that they dare not even raise the issue of gun control, even in the most obvious of times.
The second amendment of the US Constitution speaks of the right of the people to bear arms. This was written 15 years after the revolutionary war which lead to independence in 1776. The framers of the amendment had very much in mind possible outside threats to their newly won independence. They could not have seen vast urban populations with a proliferation of modern automatic guns, capable of firing 9 shots a second or over 500 shots per minute.
People in the USA are now caught in a disastrous web of guns created by their own history. If they cannot change or modify this amendment they may all go down fighting.
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