America & Guns

As the United States of America yet again grieves and mourns the victims of another incomprehensibly horrific mass shooting, during which 20 children (aged between 6 and 7) and 6 adults were brutally and meticulously slaughtered with the aid of an assault rifle, the international community can only look on once again in bewildered horror.

The tragedy that occurred in Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut, is made even more awful by both the utterly inexplicable nature of the crime itself, and the disconcerting irrationality and troubling disconnectedness in the American psyche that has permitted such events to occur once again. 

To the rest of the developed world, the culture of weapon-obession and the fanatical insistence of the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" is utterly unfathomable - or more specifically, regarded with such melancholic derision due to the overwhelming moral dissonance between this antiquated patriotic idealism and the galling, deplorable reality which must finally be acknowledged.  

A tired cliche it may well be, but there is apparently truth in the hackneyed phrase 'Americans don't understand irony.' Perhaps the most serious and plausible explanation I've heard for this notion is that in its youth and intense patriotism and pride, the U.S.A. is a cultural fledging in its acquisition of the traits of self-deprecation, self-criticism, and derision. 

This perceived absence of self-awareness was macabrely derided as I, like millions of others around the world, watched the terrible scenes of anguish and chaos on television. I then recieved a text from a friend that read: "How long before the NRA release a statement saying that if only the teachers had carriying guns they could have brought down the shooter?" Although this may seem vulgar and insensitive, I actually read such comments posted in complete seriousness and agreement across social networking websites in the wake of the tragedy. 

It is a shocking indictment of the state of a country so ravaged by such heinous crimes that, even in the wake of yet another senseless and tragic mass-shooting, the President himself cannot even utter the words 'gun control' in a speech addressing the bereaved nation, for fear of reprisal by the all-powerful gun lobby on Capitol Hill. 

It is the refusal to acknowledge or accept the sheer intolerability of the problem that is most bewildering to other developed nations - although in fairness, the repercussions of this latest horrific incident have resulted in the most comprehensive criticisms from countless countries around the world, regardless of their socio-economic status. How many more need die before the U.S.A finally takes (lamentably simple) action to ensure such catastrophes never occur again?