The American Gun Culture - Case Study Example

The American Gun Culture Gun Culture is an integral part of America’s culture. The famous historian Richard Hofstader, in his article ‘America as a Gun Culture’, popularized this phrase. It depicts America’s love for the guns and its heritage. It has been an important element of America’s history still it has been one of the most controversial issues. The debate is basically on the rights of a citizen and the government’s duty to provide for the common defense (Wayment, Andrew M., 2000) and the governments authority to regulate firearms and government’s duty to maintain law and order (Robert J. 1995.) History of the Gun Culture Gun culture is akin to the American Identity. As America is a staunch supporter of individual’s liberty, the right to own a gun is basically seen as a right to defend oneself and that is why considered as a basic right of a citizen. If we look back in the history, during America’s westward expansion, settlers used to keep them as their inseparable part because they needed to protect themselves from the native Indians, or wild animals or any other unseen threat to their life. In the later part of the Eighteenth Centurty, every citizen was considered an armed soldier and was supposed to be responsible for protecting his country. By 1790, mandatory military service for all males was removed and replaced by voluntary service in a regular army. Apart from self protection, guns have been a part of American way of life as seen in popularity of hunting as a sport even today. It is very visible in the media as well. Although the FCC has regulated sexual content and profanity on television, guns continue to take the centrestage. Shooting and violence is shown in graphic details. In the 1960’s the assasination of Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King led to a very significant passage of federal gun-related legislation, which is the Gun Control act of 1968. this law regulates interstate commerce of guns. They can only be distributd to licensed dealers. But guns are more of a local affair than national.(Sales, L.2007) The legislation varies from one state to the other. America and Guns Almost 50% of American population have guns in their family. This translates into about 93 million people having access to a gun. Almost 59 million of them own the gun personally ("Gun Control", Just the Facts, 2005-12-30 (revised). It is estimated that more than 200 million guns are in circulation in the American population but there is no register of guns to provide a definite count. Some people say that about 100 million people have guns. The supporters of gun culture claim that people should be seen as trustworthy and should not be prevented from having guns. They believe that all gun owners are familiar with and have respect for Jeff Cooper’s Four Rules or NRA’s three Rules.The Four laws are: 1. All guns are always loaded 2. Never let the muzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. 3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target. 4. Alwas be sure of your target. The National Rifle Assication’s Three rules are : 1. Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction 2. Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. 3. Always keep the gun loaded until ready to use. Abiding by these rules makes them responsible and encourage safe handling of the guns. Most of them practice shooting as a sport. They are supposed to be assocating their right to own a gun as a hunting sport. It is believed that the Gun Culture people usually live in the rural areas. The supporters of the Gun Culture look at it as a protection from criminals and a support for self defence. They also feel that this culture gives them protection against tyranny. But whenever there is a case of mass shooting, it leads to a heated debate on Gun Culture. In 1999 two students Eric Harris and Dylan Kleebold of Coulumbine High School in Littleton Colarado, killed 12 students and a teacher. They wounded 24 others and finally killed themselves also. As an immediate reaction, there were demands for restricting the use of guns but after a while it faded away. So much so that just five years after this tragedy, a 1994 federal ban on weapons expired and no voice was raised to renew it. In October 2006, a similar tragedy took place in an Amish school in Pennsylvania. Once again the usual rounds of ‘ban the gun’ were being hurled at every nook and corner, only to fade away once again. Guns and Crime America is a very open country with all the freedom of speech. It is also a very aware country that would not take any bullshit from anyone and keep quiet. The repeated dying down of comdmnation of the Gun Culture is because of its baselessness. There is no link between guns and violence. Its not the guns that cause violence in the society. It is often said that ‘guns don’t kill, people kill.’ If we want to ban the guns or put restrictions on owning the guns on the ground that they encourage violence, we need to analyze first, what are the causes of violence. The factors leading to crimes are poverty, education, mental illness, alchohol and unemployment. If we look at other countries from Gun Culture point of view. It is significantly different in UK, Australia, Newzealand, and Japan. In UK, only those with a valid license can possess a gun. They have to provide a valid reason to get this license. Still there is a debate going on there as well on the Gun Culture. These came up as a result of killing of three teenagers in different parts of South London and killing of a 28 year old man in Hackney in East London, and a few more incidents of shooting. Brendan O’neill says(Spiked, 20th February, 2007, Shooting down the myth of the Gun Culture) that it is strange that there is panic on these killings. If we look at these killings in isolation, they do look very tragic and they are tragic but the point is that when we see them in a wider prespctive, they do not look like as big a problem as they are made out to be. If we look at the statistics provided by the Home Ofice’s Statistical Bulletin 2005/2006, there were 50 homicides involving guns as compared to 78 cases in the last year. This shows a drop in the crime rate. The statistics also show that homicide by guns is only 8 to 10% of all the killings. People are more likely to be killed by hitting or strangling. Blunt objects have been used in many cases. But we do not raise voice against them and call for a ban on the killings itself. Nobody talks about America’s ‘Hitting Culture’ or ‘ strangling Culture’ .actually guns pose a much lesser threat to the safety of innocent people tanh other causes. In 2004, according to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control recorded 12,782 deaths of people aged under 24 years in road accidents in comparison to 4,372 by guns. These shooting were mostly gang-related. Infact people are more likely to be killed by a reckless driver than a reckless shooter. The War Against Gun Culture People who are against the Gun Culture say that if the guns were restricted we would see a drop in the crime rate. Their argument is that every year 14,000 people die in America in gun related crimes. They say that the amendment to the Constitution is being misinterpreted by encouraging the Gun Culture. This amendment was done to maintain the state’s right to retain a militia and not to encourage the individuals to own guns without any restriction. This trend, according to them has putt he lives of the innocent citizens at risk. They also hold NRA reponsible for putting the innocent people at risk because of its lack of attention on gun safety and gun owner’s accountability. The NRA president, Charlton Heston, who is also an actor, said on camera that the gun can not be separated from him till he is alive. He held it above his head and said that it can only be taken away from his ‘cold,dead hands’. Gun Culture is Not the Culprit The opponents of Gun Culture always raise their voice whenever there is a case of reckless shooting. They want the guns to be banned to stop these crimes. But the reality is that banning forearms are not to be blamed for these killings. If we want to reduce these cases there should be more stress on drug conseling in the schools, there should be youth education programs on safe driving, there should be restriction on alchohol sale and purchase. Police should take more active action to clean up the streets and control the gang wars. Family counseling and social awareness will bring down the rate of crime more than just banging the gun. People do not go out and shoot just because they have the gun. They do so because of several reasons like group rivalries, personal frustration, drug addiction or mental derangement. Poverty and unemployment also lead to such incidents. All these people who get involved in such crimes would have done so even if they did not have a gun. Most of the killings that the gun culture opponents talk about take place in the heat of the moment. When a person is in that frame of mind, he would find some way or the other to harm others. He can stab, he can strangle, he can put the place on fire. That is why it is said that it is not guns who kill, it is the people who kill. America does not need a ban on gun culture, it needs a ban on “Careless Culture”. Most of these crimes are commited by youngsters who come from broken homes. They lack parental guidance. They lack a role model in their life. If we form a system to fill in the gaps left by irresponsible parents then maybe we can expect a drop in such crimes rather than just calling for a ban on the gun culture. In fact banning the gun culture will have an adverse effect if we encourage sale and purchase of firearms in the grey market. So we may have a legal ban on possesing the gun but it will not alter or bring down the number of guns held by individuals. Guns are most dangerous in the hands of the gangsters and the underworld. Any change in the law will not affect them. They do no abide by the law anyway. In fact by taking the gun away from the individual we will be putting him at a much higher risk of becoming a victm of these crimminals then doing any good to the society. Conclusion America is the happening country. Whatever happens here gets blown out of proportion. Because of its position in the world, even minor incidents become a hot topic of debate. No doubt such reckless killing is a tragic incident and nobody would like to encourage it or support it but we need not link it with America’s gun culture. This gun culture is an integral part and almost a identity of America. If we look at the past and the present in totality, we will find that the gun culture has remained the same all along. If there is any rise in crimes related to fire arms we need to look into the real causes behind them. We will find that breaking up of the families, stress at the workplace, lack of moral values etc. are the root causes behind all kinds of crime. Instead of blaming the gun culture we should be more concerned about crime as a whole. We should think of what measures can be taken on the state level, on the level of society orat a personal level to address these causes. Counselling programs and behaviourial therapy are what the society needs today. Let us understand once again and accept the fact that “Guns do not kill, people do.” References: Robert J.: The Politics of Gun Control, Chapter 1. Chatham House Publishers, 1995. Sales, L. 17th April, 2007, A look inside America’s gun culture, ABC news online, http://www.abc.net.au/news/> Wayment, Andrew M., The Second Amendment: A Guard for Our Future Security. Idaho Law Review Comments 37 (2000): 223 Suggested reading: Arming America, by Michael A. Bellesiles The University of Chicago Chronicle, Nov 6, 2003, vol 23, no.4, Lectures analyze America’s gun culture, by Peter Schuler Read More