Two more African-American men are dead, killed by police officers in the United States. They did not come back home to their families. In Dallas, police officers are killed trying to protect innocent protesters; families waiting as the men and women who give their lives to service also did not come back home. Yet, the NRA (National Rifle Association) in the United States has never stood trial for these murders, nor for the
death of many young men, sometimes still children themselves, in streets – holding guns and dying from guns. It has not stood trial for the killing of the many loved ones in an Orlando nightclub who also died at the end of a gun, some of which did not go back to their families as well. They argue that humans kill, not guns. But if anyone can have access to a rifle or handgun, is it a human thing or a cultural dilemma controlled and promoted by the NRA and other gun lobbies?
What is the fascination with guns? Who is teaching American citizens that holding one keeps them safer?
The NRA has a budget of $250 million dollars per year to influence and convince Americans that guns have no effect on the murder rates in the United States and indirectly, the incarceration rate.
What baffles me is how we can, in one breath, be outraged when people die; then, in another, we watch a society that promotes the right to bear arms, carry on without recourse or solutions. We stand by and watch good people get murdered while the NRA argues that it keeps the country safer.
In comparison to countries such as Canada, to narrow it amongst other North American countries, studies show that Canada has a stricter gun-control policy; murders due to firearms are seven times lower than that of the United States. The studies also show that the number of weapons owned in the US is much higher than in Canada, which means there are way more guns floating around for people to find and use. These are, of course, only the ones that have been reported.
The NRA’s answer to the recent shootings, and mass shooting in particular, puts the blame in the hands of the victims. It states that by being armed, they could have defended themselves. The argument is that more people dead would have been the answer; the death of more civilians, and more good policemen, would have been the answer. It refuses to entertain that it’s the NRA itself contributing to the promoting of active violence with arms. So my question to the NRA members is this: if it were your family members who died at the hands of someone holding a gun, would you then understand how guns perpetuate violence? Every man and woman murdered had a family and loved ones that they left behind.
We as global citizens, even if not American, have a right to demand the end of deaths, the end of murders and the end of what we can only see as a love of guns. We love our American friends and neighbors. When you hand a society guns that has clearly divided its population, the hate ends up at the end of a gun. When the NRA recognizes this, perhaps laws can then be passed to protect our American neighbors.
We as global citizens say, “black lives matter” and we beg the NRA to stand back and let America change.
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