Newtown Shooting Leaves 27 Dead

For many families this Christmas is not one they will remember with happiness, 27 people were murdered in Newtown, Connecticut yesterday. The massacre took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as a result 20 of the murdered were children. This is truly horrific, the local community which is small and close knit has been devastated by this. Although after a long time the community will heal, this horrible day will never be forgotten by the residents of Newtown. It is truly sickening. But there is a bigger picture to think of here, mass murder is not uncommon in the US, already this year there have been several events in which multiple people have been killed by a firearm. In Oregon just the other week two people were killed at a shopping mall, in Aurora Colorado earlier this year a man walking into a cinema and shot twelve people, unfortunately I could list dozens more.

Of the other OECD nations, the only one to have a higher rate of firearm homicide is Mexico, which is currently enthralled in a drug war. Every other OECD nation has a lower firearm homicide rate, far lower. So why is it just America? Well many people would point to the high gun ownership rate, America has the highest ownership rate of any country on the planet, rich or poor, 88 out of 100 people own a gun! For comparison, the next highest rate is Yemen with 55 out of 100 people owning a gun. What type of guns people can get access to is also part of the problem, many of the weapons used in mass shootings are semi-automatic or have extended magazines allowing the shooter many shots before reloading. These weapons used to be illegal, under the assault weapons ban of 1994 but when it expired in 2004 (under a Republican congress and President) it was not renewed, and has not been since.  Although you can make a self-defence argument when talking about the general legality of guns, you cannot make a legitimate argument for the legality of assault weapons. A weapon that has been designed for use in battle really shouldn’t be easily available in Wall-Marts across America.

If the Democrats decide to take this issue up they will find it extremely difficult, the NRA is the most powerful lobbying group in Washington and has massive funds to put behind candidates that support its wishes. Passage of a bill will not occur in this lame duck session nor the congress elected to take its place in February, as both have a Republican-controlled House, it depends how well Democrats do in the 2014 mid-terms. But the next time the Democrats take control over everything, re-introducing the assault weapons ban would seem like a sensible move.