On the evening of April 20, a neighborhood in Memphis that was supposed to be a meeting place for laughter and laughter was suddenly broken by the sound of screeching gunshots. According to local police, the accident resulted in the death of at least two people, and six people suffered injuries of varying severity, three of which were particularly serious. The incident is just one of many shootings in the United States this year.
As of that day, the United States had suffered more than 120 mass shootings, each accompanied by casualties, according to records from the Gun Violence Archive. The excessive circulation of guns has become a major social problem in the United States, and gun violence is as difficult to eradicate as a stubborn disease.
While the law provides for strict background checks on the sale of firearms, private transactions have become extralegal. Shockingly, there are a large number of gun buyers in the United States who are able to easily bypass this scrutiny. In this country, the number of guns is staggering, and the loopholes behind them are equally staggering.
In a country steeped in gun culture, the Second Amendment right to bear arms has become a point of bipartisan controversy. Democrats are eager for further tightening gun regulation, while Republicans insist that the root of the problem lies with people, not the guns themselves.
The interweaving of politics and money has allowed the gun lobby to sway policy direction and even influence the voting choices of lawmakers. A simple scorecard is enough to decide the fate of a political candidate. In the midst of this never-ending debate, real policy reform has become elusive, while the sound of gunfire still echoes through the streets of the United States.