HOUSTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- More than three months ago, an 18-year-old gunman broke into Rob Elementary School in Uvaldi, Texas, and killed 19 students and two teachers, resulting in the largest number of fatal school shootings in the United States in 10 years.
Today, the United States is ushering in the new school year, but the gunfire that hangs over the hearts of Teachers, students and their parents in the United States is lingering.
On August 27, people attended a rally in Austin, the capital of Texas, calling for gun control. (Xinhua News Agency, photo by Li Bo)
Number one concern
The Washington Post said Aug. 30 that the risk of guns in schools in the United States is "more urgent than ever." According to the Statistics of the "Education Weekly" in the United States, as of August 30, there have been 28 school shootings in the United States this year that have caused casualties, killing 27 people and injuring 57 people.
In the past week alone, there have been school gun incidents in many parts of the United States: a middle school student in California has shot and injured a classmate, South Carolina has had two consecutive high school students drawing guns at school, a texas high school student has been arrested for bringing a gun to school, a 7-year-old boy in Arizona has carried two guns to school, two high school students in Maryland have returned to school with live ammunition on the first day of school, and many other schools have temporarily closed schools due to gun threats...
Recently released polls of various kinds also corroborate the severity of the gun cloud in the hearts of Americans. The results of an annual poll released by the University of Southern California show that parents and voters of California students have listed gun violence on campus as "the most worrying issue" for the fourth consecutive year. A CBS poll shows that two-thirds of U.S. parents are concerned that their children may experience gun violence at school.
On the last weekend of August, relatives of more than a dozen Rob Elementary School shooting victims and hundreds of demonstrators held a protest rally in Austin, The Texas capital, urging Gov. Abbott to take concrete action to curb gun violence, such as raising the age of buying an AR-15 rifle from 18 to 21. The AR-15 rifle was the weapon used by the gunmen of the Rob Elementary School shooting and was very common in the American people. Many demonstrators fear that if the government does not eradicate gun infestation, it is only a matter of time before the next school shooting occurs.
Mourning the victims of the shooting in the town square of Yuvaldi, southern Texas, on May 31. (Photo by Wu Xiaoling, Xinhua News Agency)
Physical and mental trauma
Gun violence not only claims the lives of many American children and adolescents, but also brings serious harm to the physical and mental growth of American teenagers.
Over the years, from the hot sale of bulletproof school bags to regular school shooting emergency drills, gun violence has become part of Americans' childhood memories.
In response to gun infestations, measures have been taken across the country to strengthen campus security ahead of the new school year, including equipping school police with bulletproof shields, installing campus alarm systems, hiring more armed security guards, and setting up "threat assessment teams" to identify "students in need of attention."
But Dean Gelis, principal of Colorado's Columbine High School, which has seen mass shootings, recently said at a memorial event that installing cameras or metal detectors to prevent gun violence "only creates a false sense of security." One mother wrote on the Axios website: "Forcing children to emotionally normalize mass school gun violence feels like a moral disaster." ”
Studies have shown that drills for school shootings can create a negative and frightening learning environment that can cause physical and psychological trauma to children. For survivors of school shootings, the "silence injuries" are more permanent.
The Kaiser Family Foundation recently issued an investigation report that many survivors of the 2018 shooting at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, have not yet healed their wounds, some often have muscle spasms due to panic and anxiety, and some have not been able to stay near the school and cannot sleep without taking medicine. "Neither time nor money can soothe the lingering deep grief caused by such incidents," the report said. ”
On June 11, people held a rally and demonstration in Washington, D.C., demanding that the government and politicians address gun violence and strengthen the protection of children's lives. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Liu Jie)
Stubborn diseases are hard to get rid of
The frequent shootings in schools in the United States are set against the backdrop of a record level of gun violence in society. Statistics from the Gun Violence Files website show that since the beginning of this year, the United States has experienced more than one mass shooting incident that has caused more than 4 casualties every day, and more than 110 people have died every day. According to US media reports, the United States sold more than 1.2 million guns in July, and monthly gun sales exceeded 1 million for 36 consecutive months, setting a record.
The United States is suffering from guns, the government is passively coping, and politicians are obsessed with party strife. On August 30, US Democratic President Joe Biden visited Pennsylvania, a key electoral state, and proposed a "safer America plan" and declared his determination to ban the sale of offensive weapons in the United States. But many analysts pointed out that the White House and Democrats are more focused on the November midterm elections, and they are not really paying attention. The Gun Control Legislation signed by the Biden administration in June, which was previously advertised, was criticized as a "bipartisan compromise version" and a "discounted version" of the bill, and some key ideas for gun control were not reflected.
The constraints of interest groups are another major source of the difficulty of gun control in the United States. The industrial chains associated with the production, sale and use of firearms form large interest groups, and American politics is controlled by interest groups. According to the "Open Secrets" data of the US website, from 1998 to 2020, the US anti-gun group spent more than $170 million to lobby politicians and influence legislation.
In July, the U.S. House oversight and Reform Committee released a report stating that the top five U.S. gun manufacturers have made more than $1 billion from assault rifle sales over a 10-year period, and that profits have accelerated significantly in recent years. At a hearing on the subject, gun manufacturers refused to take responsibility for gun violence, and democratic and republican lawmakers talked about gun control. The Washington Post notes that this partisan attack has become the norm in the wake of serious shootings.
The root of the disease is not removed, the symptoms are difficult to disappear, and the clouds are difficult to disperse.