Deadly Epidemic in the United States

Published in El Pais
(Brazil) on 2 October 2017
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Alessandra Guetti. Edited by Tiana Robles.
The Las Vegas shooting demonstrates once again the need for gun control laws

Nearly 60 people were killed and more than 500 others wounded in the shooting attack late Monday in Las Vegas, when Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old white man, opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 people attending a concert. It is the largest deadly incident of its type in modern U.S. history. Unfortunately, it is not an isolated event and everything leads one to believe that it will not be the last.

Organizations demanding gun control in the U.S. place shooting attacks that have four or more fatalities under a mass shooting category. Usually, the annual death toll is 121, but this year alone, there have been 273 events that fit this category.

It is a truly deadly epidemic – it cannot be ignored that there are more weapons than people in the United States – caused by a completely misleading interpretation of the right to bear arms, which was incorporated into the U.S. Constitution in 1791.

It should not be necessary to remind those who object to gun control that the United States has changed much since then, but unfortunately that is not the case. In fact, the shooting in Las Vegas happened while Congress was in Washington, D.C., making plans to discuss a Republican bill that would make it easier to buy firearm silencers. It does not require much imagination to conclude what would have happened in the famous city in Nevada if the spectators had not even heard the burst of bullets of an automatic rifle from the window of a building.

President Trump has just suffered the worst catastrophe during his tenure thus far. Hurricanes cannot be avoided, but shootings can.


Epidemia mortal nos Estados Unidos
Tiroteio de Las Vegas demonstra mais uma vez a necessidade de leis de controle de armas

Os cerca de sessenta mortos e mais de 500 feridos no ataque a tiros registrado na madrugada de segunda-feira em Las Vegas, quando Stephen Paddock, um homem branco de 64 anos, abriu fogo contra uma multidão de 22.000 pessoas que assistiam a um show, é o maior incidente desse tipo com vítimas mortais na história moderna dos Estados Unidos. Infelizmente não é um caso isolado e tudo leva a crer que não será o último.

Organizações que exigem o controle de armas nos EUA incluem na categoria de tiroteio maciço os ataques a tiros com pelo menos quatro mortos. Normalmente, a média anual de mortes é de 121, mas só neste ano já aconteceram 273 episódios que se encaixam nessa classificação.

Trata-se de uma verdadeira epidemia mortal – não se pode ignorar que nos EUA existem mais armas que habitantes – causada por uma interpretação completamente equivocada do direito ao porte de armas introduzido na Constituição norte-americana em 1791.

Não deveria ser necessário recordar aos negacionistas do controle de armas que os EUA mudaram muito desde então, mas infelizmente não é o que acontece. De fato, a matança de Las Vegas aconteceu enquanto o Congresso em Washington pretende discutir uma proposta legislativa dos republicanos para facilitar a compra de silenciadores de armas de fogo. Não é preciso muita imaginação para deduzir o que teria acontecido na famosa cidade de Nevada se os espectadores do show nem mesmo tivessem escutado a saraivada de um fuzil automático da janela de um edifício.

O presidente Trump acaba de sofrer aquela que é, até o momento, a pior catástrofe desse tipo em seu mandato. Os furacões não podem ser evitados, mas os tiroteios, sim.
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