In the United States,
while there is more violent crime in the city, there are more mass shootings - including school shootings - in the suburbs. Gun violence is a problem across the board in the United States, no one - rich or poor - is immune.
What happened in Connecticut is a tragedy - young lives lost, the individual who carried out the shootings was highly disturbed. In photos, he looks like a regular person, and he's from a well-off family. This is further evidence of the pervasiveness of gun violence in the United States, it's not just the "poor ghettos" where it is an issue.
Gun violence in the United States is far higher than in other western countries. Gun control laws are lax in the United States. It does not make any sense that semi-automatic weapons are so readily available for sale. There needs to be a serious discussion about gun control in the United States.
On twitter, CNN host Piers Morgan put it well:
"America has more gun murders a DAY than Britain has a YEAR. We banned all civilian handguns after Dunblane, what will America do?"
What's further appalling, politicians and the NRA in the United States are suppressing research on
gun safety. The quote below from the article in the link summarizes things well.
"Indeed, gun violence is the second leading cause of death for young people after car accidents, but the federal agency responsible for researching ways to stop it has had its hands tied. No other research topic has been singled out in this way. 'We've got a huge social problem that causes a very substantial amount of premature mortality and by and large, we have invested scant resources studying it. And the reason is politics,' Teret said"
This is a time for mourning for those young children in Connecticut, but it is also a time to talk about how to prevent another such tragedy from happening, about the need for real gun control in the United States.
Emilie Parker (Family photo) -one of the victims
