American Gun Laws

On Friday morning, 27 people were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Among the fatalities are 20 children, six adults, and the shooter. We're following this story closely with regular updates here. This guide and map have been updated with data from the Newtown massacre.

It's perhaps too easy to forget how many times this has happened. The horrific mass murder at a movie theater in Colorado on July 20, another at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on August 5, another at a manufacturer in Minneapolis on September 27—and now the unthinkable nightmare at a Connecticut elementary school on December 14—are the latest in an epidemic of such gun violence over the last three decades. Since 1982, there have been at least 62 mass murders carried out with firearms across the country.

There are approximately 90 guns for every 100 people in the US. More than 85 people a day are killed with guns and more than twice that number are injured with them. Gun murders are the leading cause of death among African Americans under the age of 44.

The extent of the problem can be understood if one looks at the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution which states that “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.”

In other words, we realise that we live in a violent world and while I am not interested in killing you, you better not try any tricks with me. I am armed - see.

On Dec 11, a federal appeals court in Chicago ruled Tuesday that Americans have the right to carry a loaded weapon outside their home.

The Supreme Court in 2008 recognized an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, but federal courts have divided on whether the ruling extended the right outside the home.

It was fascinating for me as an Indian at least, to read the comments made by the judge as an explanation behind the Judgment. "A Chicagoan,” the judge reasoned, “is a good deal more likely to be attacked on a sidewalk in a rough neighborhood than in his apartment on the 35th floor of the Park Tower. A woman who is being stalked or has obtained a protective order against a violent ex-husband is more vulnerable to being attacked while walking to or from her home than when inside. She has a stronger self-defense claim to be allowed to carry a gun in public than the resident of a fancy apartment building (complete with doorman) has a claim to sleep with a loaded gun under her mattress. But Illinois wants to deny the former claim, while compelled by McDonald to honor the latter.”

In other words, while going somewhere, if you are faced with someone who wants kill you, be prepared to kill that animal. Kill or be killed. Law of the jungle. Why this situation has come to pass? No use talking of that. That water has flowed below the bridge long back.

No wonder psychiatrists have such roaring business there.