Who Will Stop Gun Mayhem In America? – OpEd

By

By Vladimir Gladkov

Police have found a note left by William Spengler who ambushed firefighters in the town of Webster in the US state of New York.

A couple of days ago, Spengler, a 62-year old resident of Webster, who had served 17 years in jail for murdering his grandmother in 1980, torched his home, waited for firefighters to arrive and then opened fire on them, killing two and injuring another two. In his note, he unveiled his desire to burn his neighborhood and do what he liked doing best – killing people.

United States
United States

The Webster shooting, yet another in a series of deadly shooting sprees that shocked America in the past several years, is further proof that gun reforms are long overdue.

The accessibility of firearms poses a serious threat to people’s safety. Yet, efforts by campaigners for tighter gun control encounter strong resistance from the powerful pro-gun lobby. While the mouth-foaming lobbyists argue that gun ownership is the basic right of Americans enshrined in the Constitution, psychopaths and repeat offenders buy revolvers and semi-automatic rifles and stage bloody massacres.

The Sandy Hook school drama has finally prompted the White House to consider possible changes. President Barack Obama suggested banning the sale of automatic weapons and issuing special permits for their purchase.

The inefficiency of state control over gun proliferation is amazing. The FBI came under severe criticism lately for failing to promptly update its database of individuals who are barred for some reason or another from possessing firearms. True, there is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal law enforcement agency within the Justice Department, but it is not authorized to keep tabs on gun sales.

Congressmen lobbying for the interests of gun producers warn that an electronic database of gun owners contradicts the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution. But while defending the right of corporations to sell arms to psychopaths and criminals, they actually show that they are less concerned about Americans’ safety then about getting support from financial giants.

VOR

VOR, or the Voice of Russia, was the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service from 1993 until 2014, when it was reorganised as Radio Sputnik.

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