Last week in Tucson, Arizona, 22-year-old Jared Laughner opened fire on a crowd of people who had gathered to meet U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in a Safeway parking lot. Fourteen people were injured and six were killed, including a nine-year-old girl. Giffords was shot through the head but survived and is expected to recover.
For an American living in a different country, events like this one are especially difficult. There’s an exhaustion that sinks over me, along with the shock and grief, as headlines of yet another shooting in the United States dominate the local media. I know that my friends and colleagues are going to have questions for me. Because to them, America’s gun culture is not just controversial but incomprehensible, something they can’t get their heads around.
Why is it so easy for a disturbed person to get hold of a gun in the States? Why does a store like Wal-Mart sell guns and ammunition? Why would anyone outside the military need a semi-automatic weapon? What kind of person brings a gun to a political rally and hints at armed revolution – and what kind of political leader encourages that behaviour?
It’s hard for me to answer these questions. What I can say is that while politicians and commentators back home are pointing fingers at each other, the rest of the world seems to be taking a wider view. They see the gun-themed rhetoric of Sarah Palin as dangerous and irresponsible, not because it’s the direct cause of the Arizona shooting, but because it contributes to America’s gun obsession and weakens our ability to prevent these tragedies from happening.
“Toning down the rhetoric” is a nice goal for the short term. But from this perspective, it seems that the larger question is whether America is ready to have an adult conversation about guns and violence. At the moment, it doesn’t look promising.
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