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Bye Bye to the Weapon$
Bye, Bye to the weapon$?
By @jvolpi
(23 December 2012). - In his vibrant speech after the slaughter of Newtown, [b]President Barack Obama declared: "These tragedies must end. And to that end, we must change." And he added: "In the coming weeks I will use all the powers which have been conferred on this office to engage my fellow citizens, those responsible for enforcing the law, to mental health experts, parents and educators, in a effort to prevent tragedies like this, then what choice do we have? can not accept that these events become routine. "
Unfortunately, in AMERICA, "these events" have become just that: a painful routine that is repeated at a rate that is unmatched in any other country. Since 1982 there have been 62 similar cases in which one or two shooters have killed dozens of people in universities, schools and other public places. According to the liberal site Mother Jones, of the 142 guns used by the murderers, more than three quarters were legally obtained, including 68 semiautomatic weapons and 35 assault rifles. After each slaughter, without fail turn Democratic politicians have called for strengthening arms control and without any fault it has been challenged by his Republican colleagues, through the lobby of the National Rifle Association (@NRA), the most influential of Washington, and by a culture that believes that gun ownership is an inalienable right as freedom of expression.
Advocates of this idea are based on the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states: "As well regulated militia necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." His writing comes from the British Bill of Rights of 1689, in which the Parliament rejected the decree of the Catholic King James II to disarm his Protestant subjects, for two centuries but this provision was understood as a collective right that applies only to "militia " that eventually was replaced by the federal army. It was not until 2008 that this interpretation suffered a dramatic turn when, in the case District of Columbia v.. Heller, the ultraconservative five judges of the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on the carrying of weapons in DC, considering that violate an individual right.
But even before this ruling, the NRA was founded in 1871 by a group of hunters that had already taken this course as a flag, opposing any restrictions on firearms, including the right to bear arms near schools or malls and store them in cars. His refusal protects a lucrative Business, -as Jill Lapore, in an article published in the New Yorker in 2010, in the U.S. there are 300 million guns in private hands, but also has an ideological component that is associated with traditional distrust to the State, of a high percentage of the population: anyone qould be surprised that most of those who own guns vote Republican.
The decision by President Obama to use all the power vested in his office to end this situation, will encounter many obstacles.
First, the power of the NRA, following the verdict of the same ultraconservative judges of the Supreme Court in the infamous Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (2010), continue to invest millions of dollars to attack candidates who oppose its policies.
And secondly, the congressional Republicans who hold the majority in Congress and that, whether to defend the interests of builders and traders, or for ideological, oppose any strict control. When not yet concluded the mourning for the victims, the most prudent and have been quick to warn that [b]"we must not take advantage of the tragedy", while the hardest-and sincere-have not hesitated to say that the only way to prevent repeat the massacres in schools is to enable teachers and principals bring their own weapons.
Almost absent from the discussion on the free sale of weapons in the U.S., it has been its impact on Mexican violence: the 65,000 deaths from this side of the border, largely produced by weapons purchased on that side (Remember Fast & Furious operation) , are unrelated and anonymous front children of Newtown. But the argument of the NRA and the Republicans again the same: the Constitution grants them a superior right without any consideration to thier neighbors. In the best case, Obama will get re-introduce the ban on assault weapons (suspended since 1994) and something else, but as the impact of the tragedy of Sandy Hook School begins to dissolve the chances are that your enemies stop any radical measure. And, in a few months, the routine is repeated and a new murderer will shoot other innocent.