The Uvalde, Texas, school massacre “has reignited the debate over gun control in the US,” BBC says (here). “But realistically, it is unlikely to result in significant reform. The argument over guns has simply become too politically divisive and culturally entrenched to allow for meaningful change.”
The BBC article continues,
“It is important to remember that guns are normal in many parts of America. They are not seen as exceptional or frightening …. They are a part of everyday life.
American gun owners – and there are an estimated 80 million of them – see their firearms as protection: a way to defend their own freedoms and property. …
“Guns are so ubiquitous in America that no one will be able to get them out of the hands of felons. And so the argument goes: the good guys should have them too.”
Republicans, of course, make election hay by defending gun rights. But they’ve gone too far by opposing all controls on guns, and gun control isn’t about eliminating guns but regulating them.
For example, there’s no rational reason for civilians to have military-grade weaponry (e.g., machineguns and grenades, which are illegal; or arguably assault rifles, the weapons of choice of mass shooters, which currently are legal and maybe shouldn’t be).
People who live in rural areas, where police may be 45 minutes or an hour away, have a better argument for owning guns for self-defense than someone in a city where a 911 call brings police within a few minutes. Maybe our system should allow for different rules depending on where you live.
It’s not a given that America’s love affair with guns will never change. Cultures evolve. Slavery was a given on our continent for hundreds of years, and segregation for another century after that, but America’s laws and culture have turned against both. Smoking cigarettes is much less common than it once was, and prohibited in most indoor spaces now. (Meanwhile marijuana, once forbidden, is gaining acceptance.) Gasoline-powered cars are on the way out. Things change.
Probably not our generation, but perhaps some future generation, will have had enough of guns and decide their time has come and gone. Maybe some technology will replace their protection role. It just seems to me that nothing is really permanent, not even the intractable political issues that divide us. Someday our descendants will fight over something else.
Related article: Data show states with the most guns suffer the most gun deaths, and states with the highest rates of gun ownership have the highest rates of gun deaths. Read that article here.