The American community continues to suffer the shock of a mass murder committed by a young man named Nicholas Cruz, 19, in which 17 people, mostly students under the age of 20, were killed and dozens injured in Parkland, Florida. Mass murders in schools and universities have become an American phenomenon in recent decades. After every such crime, Americans reacted to a wave of denunciation, demanding new restrictions on the acquisition of firearms, and a stream of supporters of the acquisition of these weapons, who strongly oppose any new conditions for their acquisition. Defenders, for example, to prevent the sale of military rifles such as the deadly AR-15 rifle used in a number of these crimes, face a powerful wall, the five-million-strong "lobby" of firearms, which reward lawmakers who support them and punish those who oppose them. President Trump is among those who received financial support from the firearms lobby.
During the current year, 46 days later, seven mass killings occurred in US schools, with one attack a week. Since 2000, 188 mass killings have been documented. Two hundred students were killed. Between 2000 and 2010, 57 mass killings occurred in 36 countries of the world, half of them, or 28 percent, in the United States. What distinguishes this American phenomenon is that the majority of the victims were killed by individual weapons. The prevalence and ease of acquisition of these weapons is one of the main causes of mass murder in America. The purchase of firearms in countries such as France, Britain, Germany and Japan is very difficult and is subject to several conditions, including verification of the psychological background and social status of arms buyers and acceptance of periodic examinations or to inspect his weapon.
In Virginia, where I live, I can buy a sophisticated pistol or rifle from any arms store after the driver's license is revealed and fill out a form that includes the name and address. This process takes only 3 hours. This process in other industrialized countries takes weeks and undergo political and psychological exams. But Virginia allows its citizens to buy weapons from private exhibitions, without any questions. If these gaps are not addressed quickly, they will lead to new violence. The American has a close and deadly relationship with his gun and his rifle since the War of Independence, the opening of the American West, and the experience of a devastating civil war. But when the constitution permitted the possession of a gun, he meant a gun that fired only one bullet.