By Owei Lakemfa:
It was the familiar, but unpalatable news from the United States (US) The unfolding horror, was not Hollywood, but an American reality; a gunman is holed up with hostages whom he is busy eliminating. This was June 12, 2016, and 29-year old American, Omar Seddique Mateen murdered a record 49 persons and injured 53 within three hours of entering the Pulse, an Orlando gay nightclub. The issue is not about the venue; it might well have been a school, church, mosque, synagogue or theatre.
The mix this time was homosexuals, terrorism, religion and guns. Some other times, it was children, school, and guns. Other times it was movie theatre, array of lives and guns. Whatever the mix, motive or venue, the gun is a constant factor, it is that recurrent decimal, God’s Own Country seems unable or unwilling of doing something about.
The Orlando massacre was the sixteenth in the eight-year Presidency of Barack Obama, one of the most resourceful, intelligent and compassionate American Presidents in history. Before Obama, America already had a culture of massacres such as the April 16, 2007 murder of 32 persons in the Virginia Tech University. The ones under Obama began with the Friday, April 3, 2009 murder of 32 persons at the Citizenship class in Binghamton, New York.
Perhaps the most heart-rendering was December, 2012 when 20 children aged between 5-10 years were gunned down, in addition to six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. But the bloodiest period was in 2015 when six massacres were recorded; an average of one massacre every sixty days. Tired of repeating himself and addressing the country so frequently on the same issue, a hapless Obama after the October, 2015 Oregon Massacre told his fellow Americans: " Each time this happens I am going to say that we can actually do something about it, but we're going to have to change our laws. And this is not something I can do by myself. I've got to have a Congress and I've got to have state legislatures and governors who are willing to work with me on this. I hope and pray that I don't have to come out again during my tenure as President to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances. But based on my experience as President, I can't guarantee that."
Perhaps, if the laws Obama talked about had been in place, the Orlando massacre might not have taken place because the shooter, Mateen who had been placed on FBI terrorist watch list for ten months and investigated twice by the agency, would have been ineligible to buy the guns including the assault rifle, he used. In December, 2015, a bill that would have prevented a person like Mateen purchasing guns was defeated by 54-45 votes.
The reason for the defeat is not necessarily because of the gun culture in the country or the December 15, 1791 Second Amendment of the American Constitution. In any case, the Supreme Court had in the United States v. Cruikshank ruled in 1876 that "The right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence" and also in 1939 in United States v. Miller, ruled that the right does not prohibit regulation of firearms by the Federal Government and the states if it is not related to a "reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia."
The defeat is primarily due to the huge profit in gun production and sales. Outside the mighty American military and security forces, there were 242 million privately owned guns in 2009 when Obama assumed office. In 2013 the American population was 317 million while the number of guns in private hands was 357 million; that is 40 million more guns than the populace. By 2009, the American gun-makers were producing 5.6 million guns annually, and in 2013, 10.9 million guns.
It is therefore the aroma of the dollar that prevails, rather than common sense and the need to protect innocent Americans. This was reflected in the responses to the Orlando shootings. For instance, President Obama noted that “The shooter was apparently armed with a hand gun and a powerful assault rifle. This massacre is, therefore, a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. We have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be”
However, the reaction of the presumptive Republican candidate, Donald Trump was in line with the illogical argument that the solution to gun violence is more guns. He said . 'If we had people, where the bullets were going in the opposite direction... And this son of a b**** comes out and starts shooting, and one of the people in that room happened to have (a gun) and goes boom, boom (shoots the attacker)... You know what? That would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks.” Trump added “President Obama is trying to make terrorism into guns and it's not guns, folks. It is not guns, folks. It is not guns, this is terrorism”
As expected, the American National Rifle Association (NRA) argued that guns had nothing to do with the Orlando massacre. Chris .W. Cox, the Executive Director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, the lobby and political arm of the association argued “Repeating the same thing but expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Law-abiding gun owners are tired of being blamed for the acts of madmen and terrorists.”
It is not Obama or those who call for gun control that are insane as the NRA suggests, but those who price profit far above human lives including those of toddlers. It is only Americans who can save themselves from profiteers and make their country safe. As it is, the United States is a high risk country and an international travel alert for all those going to that country, will not be out of place. God bless America!
Follow us on Twitter @KARIFEST1
It was the familiar, but unpalatable news from the United States (US) The unfolding horror, was not Hollywood, but an American reality; a gunman is holed up with hostages whom he is busy eliminating. This was June 12, 2016, and 29-year old American, Omar Seddique Mateen murdered a record 49 persons and injured 53 within three hours of entering the Pulse, an Orlando gay nightclub. The issue is not about the venue; it might well have been a school, church, mosque, synagogue or theatre.
The mix this time was homosexuals, terrorism, religion and guns. Some other times, it was children, school, and guns. Other times it was movie theatre, array of lives and guns. Whatever the mix, motive or venue, the gun is a constant factor, it is that recurrent decimal, God’s Own Country seems unable or unwilling of doing something about.
The Orlando massacre was the sixteenth in the eight-year Presidency of Barack Obama, one of the most resourceful, intelligent and compassionate American Presidents in history. Before Obama, America already had a culture of massacres such as the April 16, 2007 murder of 32 persons in the Virginia Tech University. The ones under Obama began with the Friday, April 3, 2009 murder of 32 persons at the Citizenship class in Binghamton, New York.
Perhaps the most heart-rendering was December, 2012 when 20 children aged between 5-10 years were gunned down, in addition to six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. But the bloodiest period was in 2015 when six massacres were recorded; an average of one massacre every sixty days. Tired of repeating himself and addressing the country so frequently on the same issue, a hapless Obama after the October, 2015 Oregon Massacre told his fellow Americans: " Each time this happens I am going to say that we can actually do something about it, but we're going to have to change our laws. And this is not something I can do by myself. I've got to have a Congress and I've got to have state legislatures and governors who are willing to work with me on this. I hope and pray that I don't have to come out again during my tenure as President to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances. But based on my experience as President, I can't guarantee that."
Perhaps, if the laws Obama talked about had been in place, the Orlando massacre might not have taken place because the shooter, Mateen who had been placed on FBI terrorist watch list for ten months and investigated twice by the agency, would have been ineligible to buy the guns including the assault rifle, he used. In December, 2015, a bill that would have prevented a person like Mateen purchasing guns was defeated by 54-45 votes.
The reason for the defeat is not necessarily because of the gun culture in the country or the December 15, 1791 Second Amendment of the American Constitution. In any case, the Supreme Court had in the United States v. Cruikshank ruled in 1876 that "The right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence" and also in 1939 in United States v. Miller, ruled that the right does not prohibit regulation of firearms by the Federal Government and the states if it is not related to a "reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia."
The defeat is primarily due to the huge profit in gun production and sales. Outside the mighty American military and security forces, there were 242 million privately owned guns in 2009 when Obama assumed office. In 2013 the American population was 317 million while the number of guns in private hands was 357 million; that is 40 million more guns than the populace. By 2009, the American gun-makers were producing 5.6 million guns annually, and in 2013, 10.9 million guns.
It is therefore the aroma of the dollar that prevails, rather than common sense and the need to protect innocent Americans. This was reflected in the responses to the Orlando shootings. For instance, President Obama noted that “The shooter was apparently armed with a hand gun and a powerful assault rifle. This massacre is, therefore, a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. We have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be”
However, the reaction of the presumptive Republican candidate, Donald Trump was in line with the illogical argument that the solution to gun violence is more guns. He said . 'If we had people, where the bullets were going in the opposite direction... And this son of a b**** comes out and starts shooting, and one of the people in that room happened to have (a gun) and goes boom, boom (shoots the attacker)... You know what? That would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks.” Trump added “President Obama is trying to make terrorism into guns and it's not guns, folks. It is not guns, folks. It is not guns, this is terrorism”
As expected, the American National Rifle Association (NRA) argued that guns had nothing to do with the Orlando massacre. Chris .W. Cox, the Executive Director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, the lobby and political arm of the association argued “Repeating the same thing but expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Law-abiding gun owners are tired of being blamed for the acts of madmen and terrorists.”
It is not Obama or those who call for gun control that are insane as the NRA suggests, but those who price profit far above human lives including those of toddlers. It is only Americans who can save themselves from profiteers and make their country safe. As it is, the United States is a high risk country and an international travel alert for all those going to that country, will not be out of place. God bless America!
Follow us on Twitter @KARIFEST1
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