It sounds hypocritical for a US President to criticise his own country’s law and still not be able to mend the law for the good of its people.
Oregon college shooting of 1st October 2015 is 994th mass gun attack in US in three years.
Barack Obama while giving a speech from the White House made no attempt to hide his anger at US gun laws in the wake of the latest mass shooting at Umpqua Community College.
He said that thoughts and prayers were “not enough” to stop the successive rounds of carnage that have become “routine”.
Telling that there was a gun for roughly every man, woman and child in America, Mr Obama cited the UK and Australia as examples of countries that have responded to shooting massacres with effective gun control laws.
Obama further added, “This is a political choice that we make, to allow this to happen every few months in America, We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.”
Well Said But What about the Change?
There are some major obstacles which prevent bringing any reforms in gun control laws.
Americans Have a Right to Bear Arms: The US Constitution guarantees Americans the right to bear arms, a cherished freedom that has great significance with many voters.
The Gun Culture of America: According to Spitzer; the author of ‘Guns Across America’ “The Guns and the gun culture are deeply engrained in portions of American life.
“The gun culture has two parts — the hunting/sporting tradition, and the frontier/militia tradition,” said Spitzer, “The former is recreational; the latter is political and ideological. Both of these contribute to the modern attachment to guns”And all that means is that guns, in the U.S., aren’t going to disappear.
NRA is a Strong pro-gun Lobby: The NRA (National Rifle Association) has money because it has clout. And it has clout because it has a lot of votes in key battleground House districts and battleground states voting for president and U.S. senators.The intransigent National Rifle Association and Republicans refuse to impose any kind of restrictions on weapons.
Political Opposition: The Senate blocked new gun control laws in 2013 While Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and other prominent Democrats have supported the President’s repeated calls for change, many Republicans have opposed them.The legislation was introduced in the 113th Congress, but was defeated by the Senate.
Will Obama Succeed in his Anti-Gun Agenda?
Considering the fact that the vast majority of Republicans as well as a minority of Democrats have traditionally been adverse to new gun control legislation it seems impossible for Obama to get enough votes for changing the laws.
