Abstract
Gun violence has rapidly increased in the past few years and the majority of the victim of gun-related violence are children and teenagers. In fact, one of the major reasons behind the death of children between the age group of 1- 19 is said to have caused due to Gun-Related Violence. Also, it is said that youngsters in America die more from gun violence than road accidents.
Within recent years, the increase in mass shootings and other gun-related violence has put the United States in a Public Health Epidemic.
And all this while, few things remain unaddressed, and through this paper it’s an attempt to address this issue and give a holistic unbiased view on it, to the readers.
Keywords
Gun Violence, Epidemic, Second Amendment of the American Constitution, FBI, NRA
Introduction
According to a recent survey, around the world, there are estimated to be 650 million civilian-owned firearms, among which the US population has 270 million which includes handguns, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, and other manufactured weapons. According to recent data, there are 120 guns per 100 Americans, which is the highest followed by Yemen. And the US still remains to have the highest with homicide rate with gun, which is one of the biggest concerns. According to some official data, the country that teaches the lesson of peace and democracy has witnessed more than 20,000 gun deaths excluding suicide, in 2022. And this year within the last three months over 5000 people have already died due to gun violence, also 163 mass shooting has already happened in 2023, and more than 400 teenagers died due to these mass shooting. And the scariest part is, one in twenty Americans, on an average, owns an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which was once used by the military for protecting the country, and now plays a major role in mass shootings.
And all these numbers show that this issue is a ticking bomb to the US, the country that teaches to maintain peace, stability, and democracy to the rest of the world, has failed.
Research Methodology
This is a paper with descriptive nature and the research is based on secondary source information, which includes information from newspapers, journals, and websites.
Are men with guns really representing a free state?
A country could be called free state only when the people in the country can live in peace and harmony without any fear but according to some research, more than half of Americans carry a gun for self- defence, in a country where men, women, and children walk with fear of life, where the citizen feel safe only if they carry gun can’t be called a free state. So, the question remains, is US a progressive state?
What are the reasons behind American’s obsession with guns?
Reason 1: America received its gun culture from their constitution as a ‘constitutional right’. Second amendment was introduced in 1791 allowing US citizen right to bear arms and to form private militia for the security of the state.
These rights were given in different period for a different reason but over 200 years later Americans aren’t able to let go this right, as if taking away this would make them lose their belief from democracy. Some people call it their basic freedom to life and self-defence and they don’t care about how much the country has changed in the years, they won’t give up on this right0
Reason 2: Gun laws are regulated by states. As US is a federal country, state rules are different and central government cannot bring about a universal regulation. Easy availability, as there are less regulation and no government interference. Among the 50 states in US, in only 7 of them carrying firearms are strictly prohibited and in 8 states, registration is not mandatory at all to carry gun. And there 28 states where “Stand your ground” is activate, which means you are permitted to use guns as long as it can be proved that it was kept for defence of body, family and property. Hence, there are a lot of loopholes which can be used easily to manipulate the currently existing laws.
Reason 3: NRA (National Rifle Association), that claims to be America’s longest standing civil right organisation which has been campaigning against gun control, for years.
And they say “the best way to stop bad guy with a gun is a good guy with gun”, which in turn promotes usage of guns.
What is the current verification method followed, before providing accessibility to gun?
Although there are states where no verification is required to access guns. But among the other states, FBI database is checked, the problem with this database is, it is outdated & it’s missing millions of records.
As a result, it fails to identify if the person could be eligible of carrying guns or not and also one of the biggest drawback to this method is there is no information obtained about the person’s current mental state, which makes it difficult to identify whether the gun is going to not be dangerous to other people.
Is it possible to ban gun in the US?
With years of obsession of Americans with guns, it is nearly impossible to put a complete ban.
Therefore, they need to focus on the state legislature, and make strict background check compulsory for a man to carry gun which is the only possible way to put a restriction on gun violence.
But the country seems to be stuck in a cycle for decades:
Mass shooting à Push for reforms à No Action.
In this instance, the country could look at Switzerland and learn from its reforms, as the official statistic says that it is a country, that has high gun ownership but is low in violent crime. Whereas, the US has high gun ownership and high rate of gun violence too.
So, W hat’s the missing piece—a lack of legislation enforcing gun laws or something else?
According to Swiss law, to get a gun in Switzerland,
- The person has to be free from criminal record and also must be deemed unlikely to cause harm to other swiss.
- They study about the applicant’s mental state and alcohol or drug use.
- Even after the approval of Gun Licence, it is only valid for a maximum of 9 years.
Conclusion
With the current scenario, American no more looks like ‘Land of the free and home of the brave’ instead seems to be ‘Home of the scared’. When it comes to the US, we are not going to be talking about a near- total ban on guns. That maybe the solution for some countries, but the US constitution makes that impossible.
The country that deems itself as the champion of human rights, democracy, where more than half of the population is in favour of stricter gun laws, considering mass shootings in which victims are children but still lacks strong political will against gun culture. That raises another question, how is the gun lobby so powerful? In a country with 20 trillion economy if $28 billion arms market is hit then does it matter? Although, US find it-self in a very tricky position but reforms can still happen, it is high time that Americans start down the barrel, and accept that they have a gun problem and tougher gun law are the prescription needed to end the epidemic of violence.
Neelima Sankar, Dharmashastra National Law University.