Stephen Lendman: Gun Violence in America!

US civilian gun ownership is the highest worldwide. Yemen ranks second. America doubles the Yemeni level. Gun related violence follows. In America it's endemic. In Chicago alone, gun related deaths exceed one a day. More Chicago' ans are shot and killed than US forces in Afghanistan by any means. Gun ownership makes it simple as ready, aim, fire. It lowers the threshold between anger and homicide. Proliferation in society leaves everyone vulnerable. On Friday, 28 Sandy Hook Elementary School Newtown, CT children and teachers were murdered. A heavily armed 20 year old man used semiautomatic pistols and a semiautomatic rifle. It was the third deadliest gun related massacre in US history. The second worst occurred in Blacks-burg, VA Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's campus. On April 16, 2007, 33 students and teachers were shot and killed. Others were wounded. In January 1923, shootings and other violence killed 150 Rosewood, FL Blacks. No convictions followed. Governor Lawton Chiles, 1991-1998 later called what happened a "blind act of bigotry." In 2004, Florida declared Rosewood a state Heritage Landmark. Survivors of dead victims are unforgiving. Numerous other gun related lesser scale massacres pockmark US history. The right to own, conceal, and use assault and other deadly weapons is an ugly America tradition. It's long past time it ended. On November 18, 2012, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence said "epidemic levels of gun violence claim over 30,000 lives annually." US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data document it. Every gun related death leaves two others wounded. Every year, about 100,000 Americans are gun violence victims. Countless others are irreparably harmed. Nothing whatever is done to curb or prevent what's shocking and intolerable. The 1968 Gun Control Act fell woefully short. Federal regulation enacted was weak and ineffective. Gun manufacturers supported the measure. It prohibits interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers. It did nothing to curb gun proliferation across America.