June 3rd, 2022 / Leave Feedback / nezuppal
**I took a break from this blog as I have been focusing on other projects. I was hoping to design this website and publish this article on the 1 year anniversary of my last post. (Not a deadline I managed to acheive, but I got there in the end!) I’m very open to suggestions and will try to post a lot more regularly from now on! Anyway, let’s get to it. And the subject I’ve chosen to begin with is no laughing matter.**
I oft find myself trying to work out how American’s think. Injustice in America is sort of accepted as par for the course. Wiping out entire tribes, generations and families of Native Americans – who cares? Slavery (need I say more) – who cares? African-Americans make up 12% of the American population, but 33% of the prison population – but they still do not care.
So, if we move beyond the “how” American’s think, let’s get into a bit of legal stuff. America has a “codified” constitution – it is a written down document. It was drafted by a group of genuises, particularly James Maddison and Thomas Jefferson. The quality of this document is the fact that it has managed to survive since its’ creation in 1787; it survived a civil war, two world wars, countless more wars and invasions from the USA (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan).
It’s easy to amend the constitution – or at least it used to be. For ANY part of the constitution to be changed, Congress must propose the amendment and it must be approved by 2/3rds vote in both houses. This was designed to avoid any partisanship (it has not worked). If this is all successful then the amendments must be passed by 2/3 of the legislatures each state – i.e. 34 out of 50 states. I suppose in the current political situation, with such a lack of bi-partisanship, amending the constitution seems almost impossible. The last time it was properly amended was in 1992, exactly 30 years ago, and the two parties have grown further apart.
Now, partisanship reigns King in America, not George. One just needs to look at Roe vs. Wade (an article which will be coming soon) to fully understand how desperate America is.
You get your gun-touting mid-West American who a lot of people in Britain envisage, with their machine guns and turrets and tanks. But a lot of Americans actually would rather prefer to carry a handheld gun, because if the police have guns, if gangs have guns how do you defend yourself?
These Americans with their assault rifles claim that it is their god-given (and by that I mean their Constitutional right) to have as many guns as they like. And the more powerful the better! What they forget is that their right to carry a gun is an Amendment to the initial American Constitution …
The Bill of Rights refers to the first 10 Amendments which were passed soon after the full US Constitution was created. The Bill of Rights is where we can find the famous (or infamous) 2nd Amendment, also known as “the right to bear arms”. I do sometimes wonder what if they had just elaborated and said, perhaps, “the right to bear arms in order to form a professional militia to prevent tyranny”. That’s what the amendment means, but the beauty and brilliance of the US constitution is that it is specific enough to create different branches of government, whilst remaining fairly vague which has allowed for its evolution and continuation.
“You can’t amend the Constitution!!” they cry. Yes, you can.
IF YOU COULDN’T AMEND THE CONSTITUTION WE’D STILL HAVE SLAVERY IN THE USA YOU MORONS.
Yes you can. The 18th Amendment prohibited the sale and purchase of alcohol, which directly led to the growth of the Mafia and illegal bootleggers. So this Amendment was then completely reversed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment. It can be done. It has been done.
In the UK after the tragedy of the Dunblane Massacre, where sixteen students were murdered by another terrorist with a gun. This was in 1996 and by 1997 John Major and Tony Blair had established two new Firearms Acts as well as creating a “buy-back scheme” for people who owned guns, but never used them and would now face a criminal record if they were found with them.
This rapid action was incredible. It has not eradicated violence in the UK, as many Americans like to remind us, and there is certainly a knife problem, particularly in London. But against the context of 21 young children being murdered for no reason, our violence issues pale into comparison.
Why am I writing about this? Because at 11.32am on Tuesday 31st May a terrorist (no, he isn’t Muslim or Asian, but I refuse to name him or refer to him as anything other than that – because that’s what he is.) took an AR-15-style Semi-Automatic Rifle into a fourth grade class and left 21 dead. The children were 9 and 10 years old.
But rather than leaving me sad, it makes me confused. These killings are not new to the USA. Of course, the age and innocence of these victims makes this particular shooting all the more heart-breaking. But literally the day before, US memorial Day weekend was marked by several mass shootings which left nine people dead and more than 60 injured.
In 2020, for the first time in the country’s history, ‘firearm-related deaths’ have becine the leading cause for childhood and teenage deaths. Re-read that and just think. In the USA, if you are a child or teenager you’ll most likely killed by a gun – because the top 1% of the top 1% can’t be bothered to sacrifice their bonuses to save childrens’ lives. They know exactly what the problem is, the world knows what the problem is, the President of the USA even knows what the problem is. But their hands are tied.
When Bill Clinton was President he managed to pass the “Assault-Weapons Ban 1994” which specifically included banning the sales of AR rifles. However, this ban only lasted 10 years and by 2004 they were once again being mass produced. Look at the size of those weapons. Why would they ever possibly, ever, in any situation, no matter the context, be needed anywhere other than the battlefield. An elementary school is not a battlefield.
What angers me even more and should terrify every parent in America was that this terrorist legally purchased two of these huge assault rifle on his 18th birthday. No checks, no questions just two massive rifles and 21 potentially brilliant lives taken away. And this is not uncommon in America. Yes, some states have much stricter regulation than others and the carrying of firearms across state borders is illegal. But this doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen? These weapons are far too easy to sell and transport but more importantly, in some states they are just too easy to purchase from your local store!
He bought these weapons completely legally.
You’d think Sandy Hook would have woken America up to its problems. But the NRA and other lobbyist obviously get in the way. Nothing about the reaction of the USA surprised me, because I know change is next to impossible. But when the leading cause of deaths is completely preventable, it does lead you to question whether America is beyond hope (another article I am working on, following the Capitol’s insurrection in 2021).
Change is possible, but incredibly unlikely. Realistically, you will never see an American bring a knife to a gun fight.
Ignorantly Ignorant 