April 16, 2022, is just an ordinary Saturday for the vast majority of Americans. But in less than 24 hours from the early hours of that day to the next day, there were several serious mass shootings across the United States, including a shooting in Columbia, South Carolina, where people shopping in a mall were suddenly shot and 14 injured; and the pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which shocked the country— about 200 teenagers, a large number of them minors, held a party in a building in the city, and gunmen strafed into the crowd, killing 2 people and injuring many others.
Police investigate the scene of a shooting in Pittsburgh, USA, on April 17. Xinhua News Agency, Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Municipal Department
The previous weekend was even worse, with several states, including Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, reporting a shooting that killed at least three people. According to data released by the U.S. Gun Violence Files website, as of the morning of April 17, 2022 alone, gun-related violence has killed 12,502 people and injured 10,024 in the United States. There have been 138 "mass shootings" in which more than 4 people were shot at the same time and place.
The proliferation of gun violence has always been one of the most criticized stains on American society, and it is also a common topic in American politics. In recent years, due to the continuous deterioration of the security situation in the United States, "buying guns for self-defense" seems to have become a helpless move for the American people, and in some states, the government has even encouraged the possession of more guns. According to the data released by the United Nations in 2018, the number of guns owned by the United States has exceeded 390 million, and such a large number of guns has objectively increased the probability of shootings in the United States, resulting in a vicious circle.
Almost all successive U.S. administrations have introduced bills to strengthen gun control. Recently, on April 11, the Biden administration introduced new regulations to regulate unnumbered assembled guns known as "ghost guns," but these measures have failed to touch the essence of the U.S. gun problem and have had little effect.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 11. Congress was called upon to pass bills to strengthen background checks on gun purchases and ban the sale of offensive weapons and high-capacity magazines. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Jie/photo
In the United States, both politicians and ordinary people often call for greater scrutiny and regulation of guns to buy and possess, but banning guns has never been the mainstream voice. There is, of course, lobbying from interest groups, but what has gone unnoticed may be a matter of faith, or the long-standing tradition of civilian gun ownership in the United States.
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1791, clearly states: "A well-managed militia is necessary to ensure the security of a free state, and therefore the right of the people to possess and bear arms shall not be violated." "Freedom to bear arms, like freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and so on, is considered an important right of American citizens.
People with guns have played an important role in The history of the United States. To this day, the "Minute Man" (the North American militia that rebelled against the British army and could assemble into battle in a minute) is still talked about today. In the united states in the past foreign wars, especially the first and second world wars, Americans who can skillfully use guns can enter the battlefield after a short period of training and become high-quality fighters, which is one of the important reasons why the United States can maintain only the lowest level of armed forces in peacetime, but can become a decisive force when war breaks out.
But the problem is that it's 2022, almost 250 years after the American Revolutionary War and more than 70 years since the end of World War II. Whether it is the world pattern or the form of war, fundamental changes have taken place. Guns are no longer the patron saints of the United States, but the god of death. In the current social context of increasing polarization of American politics and increasing racial tensions, the large number of people who hold guns causes far more harm than the so-called benefits. The argument that the weak can defend themselves by possessing guns is a paradox in itself: If guns are strictly controlled, will ordinary people still need to rely on gun ownership to protect themselves from gunshots?
On April 12, a shooting at a Brooklyn subway station in New York City injured 23 people during the morning rush hour. Xinhua News Agency: Guo Ke/Photo
The gun problem, in the final analysis, could be a matter of American thought. Not only the blind worship of guns, but the stubbornness and old-fashionedness of the United States in the ideological field are manifested in many ways, such as the superstition of the "Thucydides Trap", the fanaticism of the "Cold War mentality", and the prejudice against other social systems except the so-called "democratic system". The world is changing, and the United States does have a history and achievements that it is proud of, but if it indulges in the glory and experience of the past and uses the thinking of more than 200 years ago to deal with the problems of the current era, it is obviously not feasible.
Some people say that today's United States, blindly arrogant and self-contained, is quite like China's last feudal Qing dynasty, and this view may be questionable. But on the issue of guns, if Americans often come up with the attitude of "the law of the ancestors is immutable", let alone, it is really a bit familiar.
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(Source: Americas Watch; Author: Guan Shandu)
Editor-in-chief: Liu Qian
Editor-in-charge of this issue: Chen Bingran