US must cure itself of its sick gun obsession

The United States is a great country but it has shocking flaws,none more damaging than its failure to control gun violence.

The attack on anprimary school in Texas on Monday that killed 19 children and two adults has again splashed this madness inside the US on television screens around the world.

US President Joe Biden,clearly shocked,mourned the death of “beautiful,innocent” second,third and fourth graders in “another massacre”,adding,“I hoped when I became president I would not have to do this again”.

The shooting occurred just two weeks after agunman killed 10 black shoppers and workers at a supermarket in New York and has horrible echoes of the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut in 2012 that killed 26 people,including 20 children.

The US is suffering a terrible epidemic of gun deaths and gun suicide. They are now the single biggest cause of death for children and adolescents.

Yet,incomprehensibly,the US cannot take the one step which experience around the world,including here in Australia,shows is the fastest way to reduce the carnage.

After agunman killed 35 people in the Port Arthur massacre in 1996,the Howard government engineered a national firearms agreement which cracked down on gun ownership and sales,blocked the sale of certain weapons,required mandatory licensing and background checks and bought back thousands of guns.

It worked. There has been no repeat of Port Arthur.

Yet the Republican Party in the US has repeatedly blocked even the most basic steps down this road because it is too awed by the power of the pro-gun lobby.

It is currently blocking two bills in Congress that would close loopholes which allow many people to buy guns without a background check.

The gun control debate has morphed into a sick culture war in which the gun lobby claims it is defending the inalienable rights of people in the name of freedom or the constitution or the American way. Pro-gun conspiracy theorists on the internet claim that the US government staged the Sandy Hook massacre as a “false flag” attack to help build the case for gun control.

Crude economics also plays a role in this battle. The National Rifle Association,which is defending the profits of US gun manufacturers,campaigns against those who push for reform and donates huge sums to supportive politicians. Mitt Romney,the former Republican presidential candidate and senator,has received a total $13.6 million.

The NRA’s stranglehold on US politics has a broader message about the cost to wider society when a single vested interest becomes too powerful.

The gun debate in the US also underlines the importance of looking at hard evidence in formulating policy. Pro-gun advocates have tried to deflect calls for gun control by proposing better security at schools,the arming of teachers and more screenings for mental health. Yet they ignore the overwhelming evidence,not least here in Australia,that restricting the supply of guns has an immediate effect.

Even in Australia vigilance is still needed. While the number of people who own guns has halved since 1997,those who do own firearms have more of them and there are now about 3.5 million registered firearms in Australia. Experts worry that NSW and Queensland are chipping away at the Howard reforms by making it easier to buy some automatic weapons.

Yet none of this undercuts the basic truth that gun control works. Australia’s per person rate of gun homicide is 25 times lower than in the US.

Friends throughout the world can only urge the US to look at the evidence and cure itself of this sick obsession with guns.

Bevan Shields sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week.Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.

Since the Herald was first published in 1831,the editorial team has believed it important to express a considered view on the issues of the day for readers,always putting the public interest first.

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