Despite domestic gun violence and deaths reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S., its Congress remains chained to the gun and ammunition industries and their lobbyist, the National Rifle Association (NRA). The 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is invariably trotted out to defend their position even though this amendment was written to protect the framers should the masses revolt. The NRA even went so far as to prevent Congress from even authorizing studies of ways to reduce gun violence until 2022 when "the floodgates were opened" making funds available for such studies. [1]
What has followed so far and not at all unexpectedly by me is a series of charades purporting to be serious studies of the issue. For instance, $2.25 million has been awarded to the University of Michigan to determine whether turning vacant lots into green spaces, such as community gardens, pocket parks or green infrastructure, will reduce firearm violence in Detroit. [2] Such a farce is totally expected at least by me from "pointy-headed bureaucrats" (to borrow the pejorative coined by the late Alabama Governor George Wallace) and from naà ¯ve academicians none of whom would know a good solution if it walked into their offices.
Aside from such silly science, this year the U.S. government enacted a law that funds some mostly tangential measures such as crisis intervention programs. [3] A few States have taken matters into their own hands. California, for instance, is ranked the top state in the nation for gun safety in 2021, yet this state has been plagued with recent mass killings from guns. [4]
A measure for curbing random shootings occurred to me after I read about the case of a shopper in a mall who was legitimately carrying a gun. He shot and killed a man who had already killed three shoppers. [5] The obvious solution, at least obvious to me, to preventing or at least reducing such incidents is to deputize people who have legal gun permits, allowing the permit holders widespread access to potential and actual killers. Smacks of the Wild West, I know, but America has long ago become the Wild Nation.
I will not take space and time here to discuss an encyclopedic array of other measures aimed at curbing gun violence. They don't stand a chance in the Wild Nation.
Moreover, and far worse and ominous, the U.S., because of its corpocracy's power elite, is the most weaponized nation, the most murderous nation in foreign countries, and the nation most likely to cause doomsday later this century. [6]
I have written at length comprehensive proposals that if successfully implemented would not only create a new America serving the people but would also lead the world on the pathway to worldwide peace. [7] This is not the place, though, to summarize these proposals.
In Closing
I am very guarded when going to the local shopping mall. How about you where you live?
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