According to The New York Times, since 2013 there has been a shooting per week in the country

Not more than two months have passed of 2018 and at least 18 incidents -involving weapons- registered in US schools, according to the database for Gun Safety Everytown. In this country, to buy a gun is easier and cheaper than to buy an iPhone. In fact, four out of every 100 students have had access to a dangerous object like this. Is it really because of the lax laws for carrying arms or is a scourge that occurs due to lack of education, training, and support?

Data collected by The New York Times show that since 2013 there has been a shooting per week in US. The most recent was the so – called 'Slaughter of San Valentín', which killed at least 17 children and 15 others were injured after a shooting at a high school south of Florida. There, an ex-alumnus of the institution entered the facilities, lit the fire alarms off, and he waited students in the hallway to bring them down with high – caliber rifle AR-15.

According to data collected by the National Crime Victimization Survay, 4% of students between 12 and 18 years old have access to weapons loaded and have carried to the school some sort of weapon, such as fire guns and knives. Although the figure is alarming, it is one of the lowest recorded in the last decade.

A rifle designed for mass killing

The assault rifle, used by the attacker in the shooting of Florida, is the favorite weapon of US mass murderers. The same weapon was used in the attack of San Bernardino, California (14 deaths) in an educational institution in Oregon (10 deaths), in the slaughter of school Sandy Hook (26 dead), and in the shooting of a movie theater in Colorado (12 deaths).

This semiautomatic rifle can hit a target at a distance of up to 550 meters and it is able to empty its 30 rounds clips in less than a minute. This weapon weighs 3.1 kilos and people can get it on the market for 475 dollars. The AR-15 is known as the civilian version of the military M-16 rifle, a weapon designed to kill large numbers of people in a short time. In the market, the price of an iPhone oscillates regularly at $ 999 dollars. Hence, acquiring a weapon is cheaper than buying a cell phone.

According to information from CNN, in the last five years, at least 1.5 million of these weapons have been sold and a total of 10 million US citizens have in their possession an AR-15 rifle.

In addition, it is estimated that in the US there are 300 million firearms in circulation. According to a Pew Research Center Reaserch, 37% of American households have an adult carrying a weapon, of these 74% are male and 82% are white. Other statistics of Gun Violence Archive organization show that in 2017 more than 46,600 violent incidents involving weapons on US soil were recorded.

¿Gun Control or parental control?

Whenever dramatic events like the recent school shooting in Florida happen, the debate on the carrying of weapons in the US falls on the table. However, many experts say that the responsibility should not only be awarded to the rise of the laws, but also on parental guidance, tracking skills, attitudes in schools, and reporting inappropriate behavior that should be done both in classrooms and at home.

To prove this, it can be mentioned that only two days after the slaughter that occurred on Valentine’s Day, at least five children were questioned by authorities after they share photographs and threats with messages that showed intentions to perpetrate similar massacres like the shooting in Florida. One of the messages distributed by a user in social networks warned Black students 'not come to school if they did not want to die'; another letter from a 11 year old girl stated she would take a gun IGNORE INTO the classroom to kill all teachers and students.

29% of US shootings occurs in schools in the US, this shows that institutions have become targets of psychopaths, that in an attempt to draw global attention or express their irrational dissatisfaction, start massacres of this kind. In the coming days, Washington will reopen the debate on the carrying of firearms in the country. However, can laws really end a social scourge that seems to seduce more and more people?

Latin American Post | Krishna Jaramillo
Translated from “¿Comprar un arma es más barato que adquirir un iPhone?”