On 24th May 2022 there was yet another school shooting in the United States, this time occurring at the Robb Elementary School, Uvalde Texas. The perpetrator in question, Salvador Ramos, shot nineteen students, two teachers and seventeen bystanders, including his own grandmother. The atrocity sent shock waves through the media for the murder of so many young children – yet many remain unaware that the Uvalde shooting was the 27th school shooting this year. School shootings are in fact so common in America that there are frequent practices and drills in place in case a shooter enters the school. In a survey from 2018 to the current day, it was discovered that the USA had thirty-eight times more school shootings than Mexico, the country with the second highest rate. In a country that lauds itself ‘the land of the free’ and a cornerstone of the ‘developed world’, it seems impossible that such tragedies have been allowed to continue.
Gun laws have remained relatively lax, and indeed guns remain legal in the USA as the Second Amendment in the US Constitution, signed on 15th December 1791, states, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The Second Amendment is called into question every year after school shootings, with many Americans still defending it as a human right to be able to defend themselves, without considering the context in which it was written. The Constitution includes the Second Amendment allowing Americans to bear arms, or form a militia against a corrupt government, in order to preserve an American democracy, something directly linked to a British Bill of Rights. This was a new document made a century prior, where the British government wanted a Protestant Militia to overturn Catholic influence, including the Catholic King, James II, and therefore guaranteed protestant citizens the right to bear arms and petition the King. Furthermore, the constitution was signed during a particularly unstable time in US history. The USA was newly independent and struggling to form a cohesive nation, continuing to be divided by conflict, including the Seminole Wars throughout the next centuries, in which White Colonialists performed atrocities to remove the Seminole tribes (lasting for almost half of the 19th century), before the USA was consumed for four years by the Civil War (1861-1865). The USA didn’t even establish a formal police force until fifteen years after the UK did, only forming it in 1844 in New York City. This may shed light onto why many felt the need for arms in order to defend themselves, particularly due to racist prejudices and sustained conflicts in areas with both white and indigenous inhabitants. It’s also important to note that in 1791 guns were far less efficient and required more skill to fire than the ones that are currently available to purchase in the US.
Today, there are no federal laws banning semiautomatic assault rifles or handguns. In many states, all you need to buy a gun is to be over eighteen, be without a criminal record and be considered ‘mentally fit.’ However too many times these checks are overlooked. Every year there are calls for guns to, whilst not to be banned complete, be subject to more rigorous checks. However, currently the majority of the Republican Supreme Court justices are actually looking to expand gun rights, after starting Oral Arguments last November, a policy heavily supported by former President Donald Trump. Following the Uvalde shooting, whilst he did claim to pay his respects to the victims’ families, he went on to say, following current President Joe Biden’s calls for stricter gun laws, “this rhetoric is highly divisive and dangerous and, most importantly, it’s wrong and has no place in our politics,” and claiming solutions such as “arming teachers,” “getting stronger doors,” and confining “violent and mentally deranged people in institutions.” Such derogatory language against people who are suffering with mental health problems is not only triggering to those who have been affected by gun crime but is also highly insensitive and continues to promote damaging stigma, especially considering the mental health crisis following the lockdowns of the last two years, which has led to an increase in gun crimes. Forced social isolation increased divides and prevented many from getting support and treatment for mental health conditions which, combined with the toxic bullying culture that influences many high schools, has only aggravated the situation.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s views around gun laws are not uncommon, particularly in red states, who take pride in the ‘American freedom.’ In the minds of many, to instil stricter gun laws doesn’t protect those vulnerable to gun crime, those suffering with mental illness or innocent bystanders; rather, it infringes on their very democracy. Ironically, to believe this directly contrasts with roots of gun laws which are involved with white supremacy, from the Ku Klux Klan fighting to prevent African Americans from being able to arm themselves, to the current day, where ‘restoring privilege,” has been used as targeted advertising for white men to buy guns. And of course, the prejudice is still all too prevalent in the news where switching between ‘gang culture’ and the ‘power of an individual’ is dependent on your ethnicity.
There is still hope for gun reform, with the campaign ongoing, but guns will continue to be a highly contentious issue in America, something exacerbated by the heightened division between Republicans and Democrats which has only risen in the past year. Gun laws may claim to protect the rights of the individual, and the collective security of the United States, but it comes at the insurmountable cost of vulnerable and innocent lives.
