Guns for Puerto Rico (Part 1)

If the National Rifle Association had its way, Puerto Rico would have many more pistols and guns in general than it has now. That would reduce the crime rate there – so they theorize – and would thus give greater impetus to the push for more guns in mainland America.

According to a video report on the U.S. “VICE News” website, whose main subject matter covers the areas of politics, crime and crime prevention, there is a new leader in the list of places with high homicide rates: Puerto Rico, which is better known to Europeans as a tourist paradise in the Caribbean and has – ever since 1898, and in permanent violation of international law – been a colony of the United States.

The question remains as to how, in 34 countries including Germany, the film report published in VICE News that described Puerto Rico as “Murder Island” last January had anything to do with the U.S. gun lobby.

For some time now, law enforcement agencies and the gun lobby have been the subject of a debate over strengthening rules concerning the use of firearms by police personnel and also rules governing private gun ownership. The fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last August and the increasing number of racially motivated police shootings have become a touchy subject for the U.S. government – and especially for its African-American president – in the domestic and international press.

But the militarization and brutalization of American police forces is only one aspect of gun violence in the United States. The totally uncontrolled practice of private gun ownership also accounts for many victims. That’s why a growing number of Americans increasingly favor tightening restrictions on gun ownership. The reason for the shift was a jump in cases of shootings by private security personnel like George Zimmerman who killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin because he thought him “suspicious.”

After the Sandy Hook shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot his mother, 20 schoolchildren and six school employees to death before turning the gun on himself, public opinion turned decisively against the gun lobby. Lanza was armed with two handguns and a semiautomatic assault rifle all legally acquired and registered to his mother. Some asked how many children and innocent people had to die before the spread of guns across the country was halted. On his talk show, English-born Piers Morgan said to Larry Pratt, president of the Gun Owners of America organization, that he was tired of hearing that the best way to prevent such massacres was arming more people. The well-connected gun lobby responded to Morgan’s anti-gun stance with a petition sent to the White House demanding the immediate deportation of “foreigner” Piers Morgan.

Shootin’ Irons for Everybody

At the forefront of propaganda advocating the unimpeded proliferation of firearms is the National Rifle Association (NRA). The motto of this pro-gun lobby – financed by the gun industry and the political right wing — is “stand and fight.” Millions of dollars in annual donations have made the organization which was founded in 1871 into one of the most powerful special interest groups in the United States. It influences political elections by supporting like-minded candidates and producing TV spots and supposedly “editorial” pieces that in reality originate in their own poisonous kitchen. They see themselves as guardians of the U.S. Constitution because of the Second Amendment added in 1791 that forbids the government from restricting ownership or the carrying of guns. The consequence of that is 270 million guns in private hands, or almost 85 weapons for every 100 American citizens.

Privately owned guns cause around 100,000 gunshot wounds in the United States every year and more than 30,000 of those are fatal. According to Spiegel Online, since 1979 more children have been killed by guns in the United States than all soldiers killed during the Vietnam War. An analysis done by the U.S. magazine Mother Jones following the Sandy Hook massacre revealed that there were at least 62 previous rampages in 30 states, of which 32 took place after 2006 – including seven during 2012 alone – accounting for a total of 151 victims. In 49 cases, the guns used were legally procured with only 12 cases involving illegal guns, and in one case, no legality determination could be made. In December 2012, USA Today quoted British criminologist Peter Squires from the University of Brighton who determined that the United States has the lead in the number of guns privately owned but blames America’s “individualistic culture that puts Americans at greater risk of mass shootings compared with other countries where guns are prevalent.”

After the Sandy Hook massacre, a visibly shaken President Obama told the press that America had “endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years.” He added that the nation must come together to prevent such incidents “regardless of the politics.” But even these careful words were too much for the gun lobby. After a one-week cooling off period, the NRA began a media campaign condemning Obama as an archenemy for proposing tougher gun regulations. The charge: Obama’s children are protected by gun-carrying security agents but he wants to disarm the rest of the country and condemn the children of average citizens to the shooting gallery.

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series. The article will continue with part two.