U.S. gun control bill “severely shrunk”

On June 25^th, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) into law. Although the bill broke the embarrassing situation that no gun control bill has been introduced in the United States for nearly 30 years, in the opinion of USA Today, the bill not only “shrinks” seriously, but also fails to meet the highest demand of the American people to “ban the sale of assault rifles”.

According to the U.S. Newsweek statistics in June, in the latest 80 mass shootings, more than a quarter of the gun type is the AR15 assault rifle. This semi-automatic rifle is a civilian version of the military rifle M16, which is not only lethal, but also has a fast rate of fire, long range, and a lightweight and easy-to-carry body. In this year’s Buffalo, New York shooting; Texas Yuval Dirob Elementary School shooting, and the Highland Park “Independence Day” shooting, the shooter chose this model of firearms.

According to a joint poll launched by NPR earlier in June, about 60 percent of the public wanted stricter gun control measures; 56 percent supported a ban on the sale of AR15s, AK47s, and other assault rifles. And just like other major social issues in the U.S., the public’s will shows a very clear partisan dichotomy. Among Democratic respondents, up to 93% of the public want to see stricter gun control measures, while among Republican respondents the rate is only 28%; in addition, up to 83% of Democratic respondents support the assault weapons ban, while among Republicans, the proportion of support is only about 34%.

Brock, associate director of Duke University School of Law, said: “30 years ago, the gap in public opinion between the two parties was about 20 percentage points, which is not small, right? And today that distance has widened to 50 percentage points, and the extent of the divide in public opinion on guns has become one of the largest of many major issues in American society.”

The U.S. government has controlled guns many times since independence

In fact, for nearly 200 years, the federal government has repeatedly adopted executive orders to ” prohibit guns “.

In 1981, then-Republican President Reagan was assassinated and White House spokesman Brady was shot, triggering a wave of social demands for gun control. 1994, with Reagan’s support, then-President Clinton signed a 10-year federal assault weapons ban, which banned the sale of 19 assault weapons, including the AR15, to civilians.

According to NBC, the number of mass vicious shootings in the U.S. dropped significantly during the decade. However, when the bill expired in 2004, then U.S. President and Republican George W. Bush Jr. resolutely decided not to renew the bill.

In Al Jazeera’s view, the gun issue in the U.S. has shifted from a social public safety issue to a political one in the last 30 years. Johns Hopkins University Center for the Prevention of Gun Violence associate director Cliffas, on the other hand, said: “50 years ago, people bought guns for hunting, today people buy guns for self-defense.”

In addition, the violent images that pervade the U.S. media have a serious impact on the physical and mental health of children, and have contributed to the integration of a culture of violence into the United States. Jim Fallon, a professor of neurology at the University of California, after studying his own “family history of violence” for more than 400 years, believes that if a country’s war lasts for 70 or 80 years, at least three generations will be affected by the “violent factor” that permeates the national character. And an embarrassing figure is that in the 246-year history of the nation, the United States has not been involved in war for less than 20 years.

According to Carlson, a sociology professor at the University of Arizona, guns have become part of people’s identity. “Guns have made you who you are today,” “You’re the kind of person who fights for your rights,” “You’re the kind of tough guy who can take care of things on your own,” and that’s what guns represent.

On July 4, the day of the shooting in Highland Park, the National Rifle Association tweeted a message celebrating America’s “Independence Day”: “The America that exists today is because of the brave gun owners who cherish and fight for liberation and freedom. ” According to the Gun Violence Archive, the number of mass shootings in the U.S. has been on an overall upward trend over the past 18 years, and in 2021, the number of mass shootings across the country reached a record high of 692. In CNN’s view, the number of cases in 2022 is likely to exceed that number. As of July 4, more than 20,000 people have died by gunfire in the United States this year alone.

Seriously “regressive” heavyweight verdict: U.S. overturns New York state’s 100-year gun control bill

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutionality of the right to abortion has created a national and global buzz. Just one day before this decision, the Supreme Court handed down another important decision that is a serious “step backward”: the overturning of a century-old gun control law in New York State. The Hill can’t help but lament that not only do we have a nearly “dysfunctional” Congress, but we also have a federal Supreme Court that teaches everyone to carry a gun wherever they want to go.

On June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to strike down the 109-year-old Sullivan Act in New York State in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Broun. The law requires “good and proper cause” for people to obtain the right to carry concealed in public places.

The six justices who supported the overturning of the bill were all conservative justices nominated by the Republican president. In his ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas, a strict “originalist” on the Constitution, wrote that “under the Second Amendment’s ‘The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be denied The right of individuals to carry handguns for self-defense outside the home should be constitutionally protected.” And in a case brought before the federal Supreme Court in 2015 involving a ban on assault rifles, Thomas described offensive weapons such as the AR15 as “the sporting rifle of modern society.

In response, NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller noted with concern that a reversal of the Concealed Carry Act would lead to a surge in gun ownership in New York City, with more weapons likely to be found in subways, churches, bars, airports, and wherever crowds gather. Suicide rates and accidental shootings of children would also increase. The Empire State will become the “Wild East”.

ABC noted that the explosive ruling will result in similar gun control regulations in at least eight states across the country being forced to make changes that are expected to affect about 80 million Americans.

The overturning of the Concealed Carry Act comes a week after a 20-year-old woman pushing her three-month-old baby through the streets of East New York was shot in the head from behind at close range by an unknown man around 8 p.m. on June 29, and the suspect then fled the scene; the woman was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital.

On July 4, Independence Day, more than 1 million people signed a petition on civil rights group MoveOn’s website calling for the impeachment of conservative federal Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to The Hill.

By Shiyue Luo