Three children and three adults died after a shooting at an elementary school in Nashville, the U.S. state of Tennessee, on Monday. Gun violence has already become an "incurable disease" of the American society. Frequent mass shootings have brought about tremendous pain to the American people, leaving them struggling in the shadow of gun violence.
Appalling gun proliferation:
- With less than 5 percent of the world's population, the U.S. accounts for 46 percent of global civilian gun ownership.
- Every 100 people in the U.S. hold 120.5 firearms.
- The U.S. ranks first in the world in terms of both individual gun ownership and the number of guns per capita.
Rampant gun violence:
- Individual ownership of a large number of guns has triggered incessant violence, causing serious trauma to the American society.
- The U.S. has some 39,000 gun deaths every year.
- Even innocent children could not be spared. More than 6,000 children and teens were injured or killed in shootings in 2022.
Entrenched gun problem:
- Positions of Democrats and Republicans on gun control are becoming increasingly polarized. Given the polarized U.S. political landscape at present, it is even more difficult for either party to compromise.
- Interest group lobbying is rampant. Group politics and electoral politics in the U.S. have provided legalized channels for gun groups to conduct money politics and influence the stance of Congress members on guns.
- According to OpenSecrets statistics, from 1998 to 2022, gun ownership groups spent 190.4 million U.S. dollars on lobbying.
- Some gun groups even declared that the best way to curb gun violence is to allow more "good people" to carry guns, claiming "more guns, greater safety."
With a political system where different sides hold each other back, an increasingly polarized political ecosystem, and pervasive interest groups, the U.S. has failed to resolve its domestic gun problem at the expense of countless lives. Gun violence has laid bare the decline of U.S. governance capacity, and it is the American people who are paying the heavy price.
Dig deeper:
Gun Violence in the United States: Truth and Facts
https://english.news.cn/northamerica/20230216/0eea38aaef204f838c8d5e6cc52b9822/c.html ■
