Guns kill people. People kill people. America, you have both.
This week, a young man opened fire in a church with a gun that he had received as a present from his father for his 21st birthday.
Dylann Roof didn’t receive a photo frame, a bottle of grog or a new shirt for his 21st. He received a gun.
On Wednesday night, Roof took that gun to the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He sat with parishoners for an hour before standing up and shooting them. Roof killed nine people – the youngest was 26 and the oldest 87. As he was firing, he told the predominantly African-American congregation, “‘I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country.”
Later, Dylann Roof told police that he “almost didn’t go through with it because everyone was so nice to him”. In the end, he decided he had to ”go through with his mission”
Dylann Roof was a racist man. According to reports, his friends say he was showing signs of being violent and unstable. Whatever his motivations, triggers or pathologies, the fact is he picked up a gun, went into a church and shot strangers.
Now, America does not have a monopoly on people with murderous instincts. It is also not home to the only heinous racists in the world.
But it is the home of gun-related killings – more than any other developed country.
Let’s be clear about the scale here. The United States is home to almost 319 million people. It is also home to 310 million guns. There is a violent event that can be described as a ‘mass shooting’ in America every two weeks. The number of gun-related killings in America is 30 times that in Australia.
As a country, America has a love affair with guns. And in the most counter-intuitive statistic of all: In America when massacres like this happen, support for gun rights actually goes up, and support for gun control goes down. This is true even though research shows that in American states where there is tighter gun control, there are fewer murders.
More guns = more gun-related violence. It’s not that hard.
After the Port Arthur massacre in Australia, the Australian Government conducted an unprecedented gun buyback scheme that was popularly supported. Both gun homicides and gun suicides declined sharply, and we haven’t had a mass shooting on that scale since.
Yes, we have our own share of atrocities in Australia: Family violence, alcohol-fuelled violence, racism, and the way we treat our country’s First People. We need to clean our own house, no doubt
But America has a national obsession with guns. It is a national disease. And unless they take action, more people will die needlessly.
Do you agree that America needs to act on gun control?
For more on guns and the tragic loss of life:
Do playground toy guns cause massacres?
Jessica died in the Colarado Massacre. This is what she wanted us to know.
A letter to my son about Elliot Rodger, the boy who killed so many.
Top Comments
The USA and Australia has way too many low IQ , angry, psychologically disturbed people to have liberal gun laws. Countries such as Switzerland seem to have high gun ownership and low levels of gun violence but Switzerland is a homogeneous population with strong mental health systems and high levels of education. Culturally diverse, high inequality, low education levels all scream high levels of gun control. the massive homicide due to guns in the USA illustrates the problem.
So everyone that is willing to obey the laws turn in their guns so the world can breathe easier, now people normal average middle of the road have to call who when someone is breaking into their house? Police the guy with a gun you call for help. The problem isn't people like me who will obey the laws, it's the thugs with the automatic weapons that are going to laugh at you when you tell them they should turn their guns in. Our borders are wide open most of the people fear the government more then outside forces. And our people are so mired in left right party nothing gets changed, I don't know the exact number but sales have been very high because of this administration. Not making excuses I just want to know how you get the guns away from the bad guys first before I am forced to turn in mine.