The Arms, the Identity and the Disgrace of a Nation

How is it that the most powerful, wealthiest and supposedly most democratic and advanced country in the world accepts constant mourning, massacres and mass shootings as routine and part of daily life? How did it become a place where you are more likely to die if you are at school, church, the movies or the supermarket than in a war zone?

The answer is in the weapons. This is the only country in the world where there are more guns than people. Here, 335 million inhabitants have almost 400 million weapons. There are 120.5 guns for every 100 people.

On average there is one mass shooting per day. There are no longer places where one is safe from being shot. In the last five years the massacres have been in bars, concerts, sports practices, libraries, nightclubs and even in hospitals, such as the one that occurred — without going into detail — this Wednesday at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a total of four dead.

The terrible episode last week in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old boy entered an elementary school and killed two teachers and 19 children between the ages of 9 and 10, shooting them in their faces, leaving them unrecognizable,* has once again highlighted the need for more control.

But the same was said in 2012, when 21 little ones died in a school in Connecticut. There were no changes then and there will be none now. Politicians are afraid to propose new regulations because that would anger their constituents.

They don’t care that gun violence is the leading cause of death for the under-18 population. This country is committing suicide. Weapons are leaving it without a future.

The kind of gun violence seen in the United States doesn’t happen in advanced countries, at least not nearly as often. In 2020, the last year for which data is available, 45,222 people died from a weapon, either murder or suicide. In Japan, for example, with one-third of the [U.S.] population, there were only 13 [such deaths].

From 1969 to 2017, 1.5 million [U.S.] citizens died from weapons. More than the number of U.S. soldiers killed in wars since the Revolutionary War in 1775.

But nothing is done about it. And not just because of right-wingers and the powerful National Rifle Association, but because this is a nation with a history in which guns have always been plentiful. The country was founded at gunpoint, first in insurrection against British invaders and later in the violence of armed settlers in the Old West.

Those who oppose greater control allege that it would be a violation of the constitutional right to be armed, a right that in some states, such as Iowa, extends even to the blind.

For Americans, guns represent the heart and identity of their country. Few understand that it is also its disgrace.

*Editor’s Note: The acts described here were allegedly committed by the 18-year-old shooter, who died in the attack on the primary school.