news: Shootings in U.S. schools
LAST week, 14-year-old Jaylen Fryberg calmly walked to his
school, Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington State,
and took out his anger on his fellow students. He was armed
with a .40 caliber handgun.
So far, three people died in the incident (including the
shooter) and at least three others are still battling with their
lives. The fatalities could have been worse but for the timely
intervention of a school teacher who prevented the young,
angry teenager from quickly re-loading his gun when he ran
out of bullets.
As usual, the country is in mourning that another shooting
incident and resulting deaths have taken place. People are
outraged. Media talk-shows are swarmed with discussions
about the increasing incidents of school shootings in the
land of freedom. Sooner than later, the anger will die down
and life will go on as usual, until another deranged student
picks up a gun to commit another round of mayhem. And, I
am referring to school shootings, not the issue of shootings
in U.S. society as a whole.
Just to show how school shootings are gradually becoming
the new normal in U.S., there have been about 82 of such
incidents since the country witnessed one of its worst school
shooting disasters in December 2012 when 20-year-old
Adam Lanzer massacred 20 kids and 6 adults at the Sandi
Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The tragedy is that nothing substantial has taken place since
the 2012 killings, to seriously address and curb these
wanton shootings, killing and wounding of innocent people.
After a shooting incident at a school in Oregon in June this
year, an angry but powerless President Obama said: “We’re
the only developed country on earth where this
happens….Our levels of gun violence are off the charts.
There’s no advanced, developed country on earth that would
put up with this.”
Unfortunately, the president could only vent his anger about
the incident because all efforts to get the U.S. Congress enact
a law to check gun availability and gun violence have been
met with a wall of reinforced concrete. Despite the tears and
anguish of families and friends who have lost their loved
ones in these dastardly incidents, Congress is in no mood to
even discuss any law that would deal with gun violence.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is always there to fight
such laws under the guise that they will infringe the second
amendment of the country’s constitution. The NRA and its
allies in Congress will not even discuss the idea of
introducing meaningful background checks on anyone who
applies for a permit to own a gun. The NRA and its lobbyists
are quite adroit at playing on some people’s fears that such
checks are part of President Obama’s plans to take their
guns away.
Fact is, gun ownership is tied to the constitutional freedoms
enjoyed by Americans. The so-called protection of this
freedom appears to ignore the fact that victims of gun
violence also have a constitutional right to life. The NRA
mantra is that guns don’t kill; people do. On its surface, this
is sensible argument.
But, the gun advocates are silent on the fact people do kill
with guns; that guns in the hands of people with mental
problems do not make society safe. And, you cannot
imagine how easy it is to obtain such guns. You can go to
one of the huge supermarket chains or gun shops and
legitimately buy one.
The problem however, is the inadequacy or absence of
thorough background checks to determine your suitability to
own a gun. The second problem is that you can buy the gun
and resell it the way you can sell your pair of shoes. No
questions asked. Then, the biggest problem is that you can
go to a gun show and buy a gun of your choice without any
form of background check; you just pay and walk away with
it.
Another issue that hardly receives the attention it deserves
is the idea of guns in the hands of teenagers and school
kids. Take the case of the latest killer, Jaylen Fryberg. For his
fourteenth birthday, his parents bought him a gun as a
present. Adam Lanza who massacred the Sandyhook kids
had unlimited access to the guns in his mother’s house, and
it was said that she had taken him for guns lessons and gun
shows several times in the past.
Unlimited access to guns
When the time was ripe for Lanza to kill people, his first
victim was of course his mother. Perhaps the most bizarre
case was that of a 9-year-old girl who killed a man in August
this year in Arizona. Her victim was Charles Vacca. Charles, a
gun-trainer, was teaching this young girl how to operate the
powerful Uzzi rifle at a shooting range when she accidentally
shot him in the head, having lost her balance during
practice.
Why are these kids being introduced to guns? No one can
tell beyond the constitutional freedom to do so being
exercized by their parents. One thing to note is the state of
mind of some of these kids who shoot their schoolmates
and then kill themselves.
When security agents visit their facebook pages and read the
tweets they had sent the days or weeks preceding their
decision to shoot and kill their colleagues, it is usually the
case that a lot of hate messages and bitterness indicating
troubled minds are found. When a kid in such frame of mind
has unlimited access to guns owned by his/her parents or
the ones that were bought by the same parents and given to
him or her as a birthday gift, society should indeed not be
shocked at what would happen next.
These incidents of school shooting are gradually making
Americans “unshockable,” if I may borrow this word from
one of Nigeria’s foremost journalists, Dele Giwa.
school, Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington State,
and took out his anger on his fellow students. He was armed
with a .40 caliber handgun.
So far, three people died in the incident (including the
shooter) and at least three others are still battling with their
lives. The fatalities could have been worse but for the timely
intervention of a school teacher who prevented the young,
angry teenager from quickly re-loading his gun when he ran
out of bullets.
As usual, the country is in mourning that another shooting
incident and resulting deaths have taken place. People are
outraged. Media talk-shows are swarmed with discussions
about the increasing incidents of school shootings in the
land of freedom. Sooner than later, the anger will die down
and life will go on as usual, until another deranged student
picks up a gun to commit another round of mayhem. And, I
am referring to school shootings, not the issue of shootings
in U.S. society as a whole.
Just to show how school shootings are gradually becoming
the new normal in U.S., there have been about 82 of such
incidents since the country witnessed one of its worst school
shooting disasters in December 2012 when 20-year-old
Adam Lanzer massacred 20 kids and 6 adults at the Sandi
Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The tragedy is that nothing substantial has taken place since
the 2012 killings, to seriously address and curb these
wanton shootings, killing and wounding of innocent people.
After a shooting incident at a school in Oregon in June this
year, an angry but powerless President Obama said: “We’re
the only developed country on earth where this
happens….Our levels of gun violence are off the charts.
There’s no advanced, developed country on earth that would
put up with this.”
Unfortunately, the president could only vent his anger about
the incident because all efforts to get the U.S. Congress enact
a law to check gun availability and gun violence have been
met with a wall of reinforced concrete. Despite the tears and
anguish of families and friends who have lost their loved
ones in these dastardly incidents, Congress is in no mood to
even discuss any law that would deal with gun violence.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is always there to fight
such laws under the guise that they will infringe the second
amendment of the country’s constitution. The NRA and its
allies in Congress will not even discuss the idea of
introducing meaningful background checks on anyone who
applies for a permit to own a gun. The NRA and its lobbyists
are quite adroit at playing on some people’s fears that such
checks are part of President Obama’s plans to take their
guns away.
Fact is, gun ownership is tied to the constitutional freedoms
enjoyed by Americans. The so-called protection of this
freedom appears to ignore the fact that victims of gun
violence also have a constitutional right to life. The NRA
mantra is that guns don’t kill; people do. On its surface, this
is sensible argument.
But, the gun advocates are silent on the fact people do kill
with guns; that guns in the hands of people with mental
problems do not make society safe. And, you cannot
imagine how easy it is to obtain such guns. You can go to
one of the huge supermarket chains or gun shops and
legitimately buy one.
The problem however, is the inadequacy or absence of
thorough background checks to determine your suitability to
own a gun. The second problem is that you can buy the gun
and resell it the way you can sell your pair of shoes. No
questions asked. Then, the biggest problem is that you can
go to a gun show and buy a gun of your choice without any
form of background check; you just pay and walk away with
it.
Another issue that hardly receives the attention it deserves
is the idea of guns in the hands of teenagers and school
kids. Take the case of the latest killer, Jaylen Fryberg. For his
fourteenth birthday, his parents bought him a gun as a
present. Adam Lanza who massacred the Sandyhook kids
had unlimited access to the guns in his mother’s house, and
it was said that she had taken him for guns lessons and gun
shows several times in the past.
Unlimited access to guns
When the time was ripe for Lanza to kill people, his first
victim was of course his mother. Perhaps the most bizarre
case was that of a 9-year-old girl who killed a man in August
this year in Arizona. Her victim was Charles Vacca. Charles, a
gun-trainer, was teaching this young girl how to operate the
powerful Uzzi rifle at a shooting range when she accidentally
shot him in the head, having lost her balance during
practice.
Why are these kids being introduced to guns? No one can
tell beyond the constitutional freedom to do so being
exercized by their parents. One thing to note is the state of
mind of some of these kids who shoot their schoolmates
and then kill themselves.
When security agents visit their facebook pages and read the
tweets they had sent the days or weeks preceding their
decision to shoot and kill their colleagues, it is usually the
case that a lot of hate messages and bitterness indicating
troubled minds are found. When a kid in such frame of mind
has unlimited access to guns owned by his/her parents or
the ones that were bought by the same parents and given to
him or her as a birthday gift, society should indeed not be
shocked at what would happen next.
These incidents of school shooting are gradually making
Americans “unshockable,” if I may borrow this word from
one of Nigeria’s foremost journalists, Dele Giwa.
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