Guns!!!

There has been another mass-shooting in America. A 24 year old man got up half way through a screening of the new Batman film and opened fire on the other people in the theatre. At the time of writing this the current death toll is 14 with at least 50 others injured. I feel so sorry for the people caught up in the incident. It’s come to something when a night at the movies can end in such horrific circumstances.

How does a 24 year old man in the richest country on Earth become so fucked up that he decides to shoot a cinema full of young people just out for a good time? I’m not excusing what he has done and he should be locked up for life but people aren’t born evil. They usually end up that way because of years of systematic abuse or some other kind of serious childhood trauma. This might have been in the home or it could have been at school. I can’t believe movies, video games or rap music are the cause. Maybe he just had a chemical imbalance in his brain that led him into this tragedy.

Incidents like this do happen in other parts of the Western world but seem particularly prevalent in the US. So what is it about America that results in this type of incident occurring on a fairly regular basis? In the UK we do have a problem with violent crime and violent behaviour but guns are very hard to obtain and are generally only found in the hands of gang members and serious criminals. If someone with no criminal connections suddenly goes mental it doesn’t usually result in mass-murder. Even if the person wanted to shoot people it is unlikely they would be able to obtain a gun. A UK citizen who is not involved in gangs or serious criminality is very unlikely to be involved in a shooting incident.

Guns seem to be an integral part of American culture. It’s like a hangover from the Wild West. Combine that with the crazy US gun laws and you have a recipe for disaster. Guns are easy to obtain and many people keep a gun at their home. The right to bear arms is in the US constitution but surely the time has come re-evaluate the law and introduce much stricter gun controls. Sadly, I don’t think it will happen in an election year because Obama wouldn’t dare face the backlash from the powerful gun lobby and the right wing media. If the gun laws can’t be changed maybe a period of national self-reflection is needed to try and bring an end to the misery guns bring to thousands of Americans every year.