Police shootings and gun paranoia in America

By Mitchell Blatt
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, July 11, 2016
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America is once again grieving from a series of politically-charged shooting deaths involving police and young black men.

On July 5, in a case that the U.S. Justice Department is currently investigating, officers shot and killed Alton Sterling after tackling him to the ground while he was resisting arrest. Video recorded by a bystander showed that he was killed while on the ground. Two days later Philando Castile was shot and killed at a traffic stop. With the officer's gun still pointing into the car, Castile's girlfriend recorded a live video on Facebook in the aftermath. She said that he was shot while reaching for his driver's license after having informed the officer that he was a legal gun owner.

Both shootings will have to be investigated further before any possible charges are filed, but they are being taken as examples of what activists say is an example of the trigger-happy police brutality that led to the formation of the Black Lives Matters group. It was at another one of those protests that tragedy struck, this time with the police in the cross hairs. At a Black Lives Matter protest on July 7, a sniper shot and killed five officers and injured seven more.

What these shootings have in common is the issue of guns and their widespread availability in America. Whether it's a police officer shooting a suspect they are apprehending, a radical shooting a police officer, a racist shooting up a church in Charleston, S.C. or an ISIS adherent shooting government offices in San Bernardino, Calif., a common ingredient is guns. A single gun-wielding terrorist was able to kill more people with a semi-automatic assault in an Orlando night club rifle than a team of eight terrorists could with knives at the Kunming Railway Station in 2014.

There are over 300 million guns in America, 112.6 guns per 100 residents, far and away the most in the world at 11 times the world average. About a third of Americans own at least one gun. The percentage of gun owners who say they own their guns for self-defense has increased from 26 percent in 1999 to 48 percent in 2013 (even though the crime rate declined precipitously in the intervening years). The National Rifle Association and gun rights activists often argue that guns are the only thing to protect you in a dangerous world.

But what if guns make the world more dangerous? And what if gun ownership even puts gun owners at greater risk? Both Sterling and Castile owned guns, and the situation with Castile is particularly illustrative.

It wasn't Castile's fault he was shot. If what his girlfriend said is true, he was just reaching for his wallet to prove his identity after the officer had requested he do so. It is an example of how the prevalence of guns makes officers and civilians nervous in many situations. A police officer approaching a car window doesn't know if the suspect owns a gun, and if so, he doesn't know if he might reach for it. This uncertainty could contribute to overreactions.

Almost anyone can own a gun in America. The sniper who shot the dozen officers in Dallas, Micah Johnson, was known by some to have mental health issues. He had been discharged from the military without honor after being accused of sexual harassment, and the victim said that she felt Johnson needed mental help. But then he was able to buy his gun and use military training to wage insurgency tactics on a city.

Only convicted felons are generally banned from owning guns nationwide. People who will commit a felony but haven't yet can buy a gun, and there's no bar on people with misdemeanor convictions for violent offenses like spousal abuse. There aren't even universal requirements for background checks, as individual Americans can sell guns in private sales with no background checks. Bills to require background checks for those sales have been defeated in U.S. Congress the past few years.

Yet after every major shooting there is an increase in gun purchases by Americans scared that guns will soon be banned and a renewed push by guns rights activists to expand access to guns. Americans say they need guns to protect themselves…from other Americans with guns.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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