A nation of guns

HONOLULU—People in America today live in the shadow of fear and violence. With an average of 20 mass killings a year since the late 1970s, according to criminology professor James Alan Fox, this country has got to be the most violent in the world. Is this the price of being the world’s most powerful nation?

The recent gruesome murder of 12 people and injuries to countless others in a Colorado theater showing a postmodern Batman movie and the rapid-fire killing of six Sikh church members in Wisconsin are only two incidents in a frightening pattern of senseless violence that has become so commonplace people seemingly don’t even care anymore.

Professor Fox argues that this rampaging scale of violence has to do with “the state of our mental health, the increased mobility and atomization of our society, the time young men in particular spend alone staring into television and computer screens—and yes, the availability of kinetic weaponry.”

The last point of the professor’s thesis on the ready availability of weapons of mass destruction has been debated to death for a long time, but gun control in this society remains a dream.

One explanation that resonates with the public as far as the right to bear arms is concerned is that it is “famously enshrined” in the American Constitution’s Amendment Two, which reads: 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.

This “right” has become ingrained in the American character as well over time.

But as the professor has rightly argued, where does one draw the line? How many arms of such high-power caliber for destruction does one need to protect oneself?

The brooding doctoral student dropout in the Colorado massacre, James Holmes, had an M-16 assault rifle, a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun, and at least one .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol, all bought from local gun vendors. Additionally, he purchased and stockpiled 6,000 rounds of ammunition through the Internet. And every purchase was legal!

On July 20, Holmes, carrying three weapons and wearing a gas mask helmet, bulletproof vest, leggings, throat and groin protectors, and gloves all in black, shot up the movie theater, killing 12 instantly and wounding several others in a matter of minutes. It was such a shocking tragedy.

Mental illness has been alleged in Holmes’ case and in others who had previously committed mass violence. All kinds of explanations have been advanced for these killers’ murderous rage, ranging from mental illness and a criminal history to a sense of victimization. The average age is 27. Holmes is 24.

But the real culprit—the easy availability of guns and the lack of gun control laws—remains untouched.

President after president of this country has been unable to stem this tide of violence, and Congress itself always faces the powerful and impregnable lobby of the National Rifle Association and its cohorts to uphold the sanctity of the Second Amendment.

No place seems secure anymore, not even the tiny island paradise of Kauai in Hawaii. As I write this, a former postal worker on that island, who had served two sentences previously for criminal offense, was able to purchase 50 firearms and 23,000 rounds of ammunition, which police recovered in his house.

And get this: The ex-mailman has a history of manic depression and “schizo-affected” bipolar problems, is given to mood swings, and is taking antipsychotic medication. How on earth was he able to buy and accumulate such an overly large arsenal of deadly weapons, enough to fight a war? This will take time to unravel. The bizarre aspect of this case is that every permit application to buy a gun includes a question about whether the applicant has been diagnosed with a significant mental disorder. How did he get away with it?

The people of Kauai can only be grateful that this did not escalate into yet another frenzy of mass violence and senseless killing of innocent civilians.

This gun-control issue will surely come up again in the presidential election in November. But as in previous elections, it will soon wither away until the next mass killing of men, women and children attributed to a deranged individual and never to the lack of gun control laws, or if there are, to the lack of enforcement.

Belinda A. Aquino is professor emeritus at the School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she served as professor of political science and Asian studies and director of the Center for Philippine Studies.