Panic in Brooklyn

The principal type of terrorism, the one that claims the most victims in this country, is domestic terrorism, Biden said when he withdrew his troops from Afghanistan.

Less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden proposed legislation to regulate arms trade, ban the manufacture of weapons at home and the sale of assault rifles, a new shooting left injuries and scenes of panic in a Brooklyn subway.

After Biden’s announcement, and before the shooting that left injured people bleeding on the floor, smoke and terror at rush hour in New York’s public transportation system, the National Rifle Association discredited the president’s proposed legislation.

Do you know who is going to win the legislative battle?

The winner will almost certainly be the NRA.

Americans mourn their dead when there are massacres, they make prayer chains and beat their chests next to the white coffins of children killed by the bullets of a deranged person, but they do not hand over a single rifle and they block all initiatives to regulate them.

Former President Bill Clinton was able to legislate in favor of regulation, but his successor, George W. Bush, and the Republican majority in Congress repealed the law.

Biden made gun control legislation a powerful campaign promise. He redoubled his resolve after the assault on the Capitol last January, in which police officers and attackers were killed.

The principal type of terrorism, the one that causes the most victims in this country, is domestic terrorism, the president repeated as he withdrew his troops from Afghanistan.

And? Nothing. For a large sector of the population of this country, access to weapons is considered as natural as access to water.

It’s in the Constitution, in one of its first amendments, which was formulated back when it made sense. Not anymore. Now it is an irrational and, at the same time, compulsive habit.

The propaganda narrative of gun control opponents rests with the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which protects the right of all Americans to own guns.*

But that amendment is anchored in the historical fact that for a long time in the United States, there was not a regular army, only militias made up of citizens.

It has remained the custom, which they follow from their ancestors, to own weapons for personal protection — a usage and custom that cannot be eradicated even with evidence of crimes, massacres and attacks. There are more guns in the hands of private citizens here than there are inhabitants in the country. It is estimated that there are about 400 million weapons in the possession of civilians.

That figure falls short, because homemade weapons are an unregulated business, and within the reach of anyone who has $1,500 to $2,000.

You can buy three-dimensional printers online and receive them at home as regular package deliveries. These printers produce one submachine gun or AR-15-type rifle every half hour.

There is no control over that weaponry or the purchase of 3-D printers. This newspaper published a good number of ads last year from magazines specializing in firearms, advertising the printers along with interviews of buyers who bragged about their homemade assault rifles.

These weapons have no serial number, so it is very difficult to connect them to a crime.

As for ready-made guns purchased, there are 120 for every 100 citizens.

In comparison, the second place on that list is occupied by the small British territory of the Falkland Islands, with 62 firearms for every 100 citizens.

In 2020 alone, Americans legally purchased nearly 40 million guns, according to FBI records.

This was higher than any other year recorded so far: 2019 was the second-highest year for gun sales, with just over 28 million.

This means that firearm purchases increased in the United States by almost 40% from one year to the next.

Biden calls for regulation and legislation, but usage and custom say no.

Immediately, the powerful NRA criticized the White House announcement. “An administration that’s truly sincere and resolute about curbing violent crime rates would do one thing: take violent criminals off the streets immediately,” the NRA’s managing director of public affairs told Fox News.

And Republicans and ranchers with influence are not the only ones who opposed regulation.

Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont does not support regulation. Let’s see who will vote for him again if he takes shotguns away from rural citizens in his state.

There are criminal use and customs that no one can eradicate.

*Editor’s note: The Second Amendment provides “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”