“Doing same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is nothing but madness!”                                                                                                                                                                            – Albert Einstein

Atlanta, GA

The Las Vegas Incident

With at least 59 killed and over 500 injured, the recent massacre of innocent people by a 64-year old man, Stephen Paddock, counts as the deadliest such incident in modern US history of mass shootings. What makes it worrisome are particularly two things – the man had no criminal history, the only dent in his character being a citation; and the man possessed more than 10 guns in the hotel room (where he committed crime and then suicide) as well as many more in his home. These are ominous signs. The fact that the man was normal and had clear background checks is a proof that even a normal man can carry out such attacks out of emotions losing self-control. Until now, most such attackers had something troubling, be it mental illness, influence of terrorist teachings, or plainly criminal mindsets. But, this man has nothing such issues identified yet. The second thing, that could be even more troubling, is the fact that how loose the gun laws are in America. A man can easily store as many guns as he likes and can tuck away dozens of guns in a hotel room. Unfortunately, little progress has been made in terms of tightening the gun laws and avoiding such “needless to say”, very much avoidable incidents. And, the result is hundreds of innocent people become victims. Precious lives are lost needlessly. We lack personal courage and political conviction to talk about and address the root causes for various reasons and leave the root cause largely untouched and we expect a different result. How can that happen? As Einstein said it’s nothing but madness!

Technology to Kill

Starting from 13 deaths in 1999 Columbine incident to 27 in 2012 Sandy Hook incident to 49 in 2016 Orlando incident to 59+ in recent Las Vegas incident, the number of casualties are ever-increasing. Aiding to the impact of loopholes in gun laws is technology. With more and more advanced technology, guns are becoming far more sophisticated. Semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles are now at the hands of buyers. A 13-year old lean boy can kill ten times more people with guns than a  strong adult man with a knife. It’s like riding a rocket instead of a bullock cart. Technology creates exponential kills.

Business of Death

America lies in the extreme right end of capitalism scale. Sometimes, I wonder if there is too much faith in capitalism here. Capitalism is ubiquitous. It’s there everywhere from healthcare to guns. Unlike UK and Canada, American doesn’t have public health system. In terms of guns business, no other country matches. Shrewd capitalism mixed with guns is producing devastating results for American society. America has 4.4% of world’s population but almost half of the civilian-owned guns in the world. As of 2017, there are more than 300 million guns in the hands of American people. America has the highest homicide rate by firearms among the developed nations, 27.7 per million people compared to Switzerland’s 7.7 (next highest) and Canada’s 5.1 based on 2012 survey by The Guardian. There have been over 1500 mass shootings since 2012 Sandy Hook. It’s worth noting that there were more than 33,000 deaths in the US due to firearms in 2014. It’s been proved by research charts that states with more guns have more gun deaths. And, countries with more guns such as US, Switzerland, France, and Canada have more gun deaths. Not the least, more guns mean more suicides and more police deaths. (Source: Gun Violence in America, explained in 17 maps and charts, by German Lopez, Vox https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts)

 Second Amendment and Irrational Justification

Constitution is a living body. The writings of the constitution are not writings on the stones that can never be changed. As Dr. BR Ambedkar, the architect of constitution of the world’s largest democracy, rightly said, “The constitution should always reflect the needs and aspirations of the living, not the dead.” But politics comes in the way of this obvious, rational idea. The spirit and true intent of the 2^nd Amendment which reads “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.” have been grossly misinterpreted and manipulated to suit one’s political purpose. The 2^nd Amendment was made during the time when America was an infant state that lacked a strong military and needed people’s militia to protect itself, which is not the case today. But it seems guns have become a part of culture to many from hunting to sporting to plain fascination. The logic that someone is keeping guns to protect oneself begs the question “why police is needed then”? Are people of countries without guns feeling any less safe? In fact, most such nations have far less gun violence. Also, a lot of Senators and Congressmen say that in order to stop bad men with guns, give guns to more good men. This logic assumes that good men are always good, which is not the case. What if a good normal man commits mass shootings in a fit of rage? What if he shoots someone in a temper flare? No good man is always good. No bad man is always bad. Violence begets violence and more guns means more violence and more deaths!

Gun Control Laws

I read in one BBC story that Japan had only 6 police shootings in 2016. The police there carry batons instead of guns while controlling demonstrations. They are compulsorily trained in martial arts and trained to use guns only as a last resort. And, that works because there is strict gun laws. A person has to pass a rigorous test and training on top of extensive background checks. And, very few people carry guns in Japan. And, police don’t have to fear if anyone has guns. Here, in the US, anyone can have gun at anytime, you don’t know. Police are always in constant fear of being shot at and killed. That’s one of the reasons why police overreact and use guns as first the resort. Due to such loose gun laws in the US, we are creating a “Frankestein” that’s creating more and more violent and unsafe society. Unless, Americans on all sides come to senses and agree on reforming gun laws for a better and safer society, such incidents will repeat and in larger scales. For that American people and politicians must have serious civil and political convictions to change things. Otherwise, by just outpouring sympathy and not addressing the real issues, we will all be making what Einstein called “madness”.