The permissiveness of carrying firearms in the United States has left 17 dead after a 19-year-old boy indiscriminately shot his classmates in the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
A statistic that continues to rise year after year and that adds to the already tragic massacre of Las Vegas that left 58 dead in October 2017, not to mention the massacres that have occurred in previous years.
These terrible events put in the spotlight an issue which, year in and year out, also calls into question the regulation of the carrying of arms in the United States, which, under the second amendment, leaves on the table the chilling figure of more than 33,000 deaths per year from firearms, 93 deaths per day due to this cause, not to mention the number of collateral victims.
A figure of deaths that should make any medium-civilized country reflect and I am beginning to have my serious doubts that the United States is. A civilized country should have, as a fundamental pillar, the protection of its citizens' lives and the second amendment to its constitution goes against that fundamental pillar.
We are witnessing how the United States is spending millions of dollars on combating foreign terrorism, putting obstacles in the way of immigrants from supposedly terrorist countries, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Iraq, without realizing that terrorists are in their own homes.
We are witnessing how the United States is spending millions of dollars on combating foreign terrorism, putting obstacles in the way of immigrants from supposedly terrorist countries, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Iraq, without realizing that terrorists are in their own homes.
Can you imagine that foreign terrorism will kill 33,000 people every year in the United States?
It would be the most serious national problem of all time and every effort would be made to put an end to that tragedy. However, the dead at home from guns are on the streets every day and no one does anything. They just shield themselves in the second amendment and look the other way.
The September 11 attacks, the bloodiest in the United States, left 2,992 dead. I have not made the calculation, but I am sure that in 2001 the number of deaths from firearms in the United States would multiply by five.
By this I mean that the dead are dead, wherever they come from, victims, after all, of the senseless, madness of violence that leaves many families without their loved ones.
Perhaps if they were to do the same as they are doing to combat international terrorism, to regulate and control firearms, that scandalous number of deaths would be considerably reduced. I'm more than sure of that.
I am fortunate to live in a country, Spain, where the possession of arms is very controlled, so much so that in order to have a gun licence, you have to go through very exhaustive controls and, in many cases, they deny it to you.
The September 11 attacks, the bloodiest in the United States, left 2,992 dead. I have not made the calculation, but I am sure that in 2001 the number of deaths from firearms in the United States would multiply by five.
By this I mean that the dead are dead, wherever they come from, victims, after all, of the senseless, madness of violence that leaves many families without their loved ones.
Perhaps if they were to do the same as they are doing to combat international terrorism, to regulate and control firearms, that scandalous number of deaths would be considerably reduced. I'm more than sure of that.
I am fortunate to live in a country, Spain, where the possession of arms is very controlled, so much so that in order to have a gun licence, you have to go through very exhaustive controls and, in many cases, they deny it to you.
The fact is that the US has a very serious problem with firearms and it is they, its people, who have to solve it.
What are you waiting for? Another massacre of hundreds of innocent dead?
Sources of information: El País y BBC
Image source: El País y Pixabay
