United States: Guns Away!

A long period of apologies, complicated arguments and personal security measures has ended. Every other day there are mass shootings. Again and again children and adults are being sacrificed (just as happens with drugs) without anybody daring to modify the status quo.

The huge gun business that hides itself behind the status quo cannot continue to sacrifice at the altar of constitutional rights. The United States cannot continue giving bad examples of this nature – including the death penalty – especially when gun control does not enter the federal purview.

Guns away! There will always be, in large groups, people who will be unhappy, but the state must ensure the public safety.

I hope the horrendous school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, allow authorities and representatives to reflect on the matter and to ponder the anachronistic laws which allowed the massacre. Some, subjected to pressure by the National Rifle Association, are unable to react, even to dead children, due to the great interests they protect. Others, unable to oppose, are overwhelmed by the very obedient political parties. What is certain is that the United States cannot continue showing the world, of which they should be the leader, examples of this nature.

The murderer followed the horrible pattern of other similar massacres, says the press. He had four firearms and wore a bulletproof vest.

“Throughout the year, the arms industry racks up $16,300,000 in sales,” says “El Pais” (but each sale can include any number of weapons). Last year, of the 14,000 killings that took place in the U.S., 10,000 were by firearm. In 2009 there were almost 600 people killed in accidents caused by guns, and some 19,000 suicides using the same method.

President Obama, with the look of a father and tears in his eyes, called for significant action. Take action, Mr. President, without hesitating for the sake of those who only see these events with dollar signs in their eyes and continue defending the indefensible, the unacceptable. Reform the Second Amendment, by which the accomplices of this nonsense are protected.

And then look, with determination and conviction, toward the children that die every day in helpless anonymity. Thousands of forgotten children die of hunger every day… while the satiated society looks the other way.

Take advantage of this very sad occasion to face this disgracefulness, this collective shame.