Ayoon wa Azan (A crime that shook the United States and the world)

US statistics show that, during the month that followed the shooting of 20 children and six adults in the Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, 926 Americans were shot dead and this figure has probably exceeded 1,000 when writing this article. The crime of December 14 shook the United States and the world and pushed President Barack Obama to work on restraining the freedom to bear a weapon. This freedom is guaranteed by the second amendment of the American constitution, which gives citizens the right to own and carry weapons and to use them in legal instances. Gun owners do not have to be connected to the military in any way, since the lawmakers thought that an organized militia is a must to preserve the state’s security. The problem with the second amendment is that it was passed on December 15, 1791, i.e. more than 220 years ago, while the American independence was disputed and there were no demarcated borders from the west or the south. Currently, the US is a country that acts like the world’s policeman. However, there are still people there defending individual gun ownership. President Obama spoke about the tragedy of the elementary school and the number of shot victims that exceeded 900 in the following month. Currently, he is launching a campaign to restrict the freedom to carry guns. Many observers are saying that he will fail, because the gun lobby is among the strongest in the US. and it is competing for the first spot with the Israel lobby knowing that both defend crime. The observers noted that the head of the gun lobby, Wayne Lapierre, laid low while the president was preparing his attack against the lobby and the companies that manufacture personal arms. Some said that Lapierre was told to disappear as he committed several blatant mistakes in the aftermath of the tragedy of the school, its children, and teachers. Indeed, at his first press conference following the crime, he called for placing armed guards inside the schools to protect the children. In other words, he called for increasing rather than decreasing arms. The arms’ lobby is competing with the Israel lobby in arrogance. Thus, the former lobby carried an ad last week accusing Obama of being a “hypocrite” for wanting to ban guns while armed guards protect his daughter. But the truth is that every American president benefits from armed guards along with his family thanks to his post and the focus on his persona. I hope that President Obama will succeed in issuing laws to limit gun bearing in his country. I say that even though I have been a huntsman ever since my teens. If the president succeeds with this endeavor, this will be his first victory in the four years of his staying at the White House. Some Americans used the ongoing debate on the gun bearing issue as a way to be sarcastic. I read that the statistics of the US Ministry of Health and Human Services show that the USA has 700,000 doctors and that death due to unintentional medical errors amounts to 120,000 cases per year, i.e. every doctor has a 0.171 share of the dead victims. On the other hand, there are 80 million guns in the US owned by citizens. The resulting unintentional shootings as per the FBI amount to 1,500 cases. Thus, death due to guns is a thousand times less than death caused by doctors. In addition to all that, and despite the high availability of guns, figures also show that not all Americans own guns, but all Americans do deal with a doctor. At first, I failed to understand the reason why a comparison is being conducted between gun bearing and doctors. I then realized that the numbers’ crunchers wanted to reach the conclusion that doctors are more dangerous to the Americans than the gun bearers and that they want to ban doctors. Even if we think of this as a mere joke, although the subject is a serious one, the comparison is a bad one, since it alludes to doctors and to 1,500 unintentional shootings per year. However, the number of shot victims was 926 in one month, because the shootings were not unintentional, which made those shootings crimes rather than being misdemeanors.  The lives of the child victims are more precious than any promulgated law. However, if a law to ban gun bearing is passed, the Americans can say that their children’s blood did not go to waste. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.