- Gone are the days when the majority of the global community used to look up to the United States of America as not only the harbinger of awesome technology-driven changes on the back of a robustly performing economy but also a torchbearer for providing a platform to the enterprising lot from around the world to make tremendous contributions with wider impact as well. The largest economy in the world welcomes and offers unlimited opportunities to people seeking to establish themselves in every worthy field even now despite losing its hegemony in the altered geopolitical and geostrategic scenario. Indeed, people from around the world seeking to call the USA their home haven’t reduced one bit going by the clamoring to reach the American shores.
PC: Reuters
- In other words, the USA continues to remain the most preferred destination for those wishing to further their career/lives in the absence of similar opportunities in their nations. Even Indians or for that matter from around the world with the best brains, degrees, and intelligence would prefer to relocate to the USA given an opportunity. However, amid all the glowing attributes, encomiums, and peans about the USA also exist an issue that often hits the headlines where one’s safety almost appears compromised and at risk. Yes, I am referring to the gun shootouts that occur with such regularity in the USA killing innocent lives for no rhyme or reason. The easy availability of guns and the absence of checks/deterrence is the prime reason for rising shooting incidents.
- As reported recently, the man who went on yet another shooting spree in an American city in the state of Maine should have raised red flags in even a moderately strict law and order dispensation – and done so much before a mass casualty event. The shooter has been identified as a US Army reservist suffering from mental health issues and a firearms instructor who had threatened to shoot up a National Guard base. Needless to mention, he should not have had access to guns but possessed them, nonetheless. But in the state of Maine and other states too, gun rights advocates are a powerful political force who veto all gun control. The more America has debated this, the more gun lobbyists in Maine have dug their heels in.
PC: Reuters
- So, carrying concealed weapons without a permit is allowed in a state that just witnessed a mass shooting. Guns are the leading cause of death among American children and teens. That there is still an acute Republic-Democrat divide on this issue speaks to a larger dysfunction in US politics. The US is known to sit on a moral pedestal and pass sermons to the universe on every matter of importance. Why the most developed nation consistently fails to address the most basic issue of the safety of its citizens by allowing uncontrolled access to guns to even those supposedly unfit to possess simply defies comprehension. What is stopping US lawmakers from ushering in strict laws to deter the easy accessibility of guns? The powerful gun lobbyists, I suppose.
