Gun Culture – When Will it Stop?

On the 8th of October a black American teen, 18 year old Vonderrick Myers, was shot dead in Missouri. This added momentum to the already nightly riots in Missouri State since the fatal police shooting of unarmed Michael Brown, another 18 year old African American, shot dead just a few miles away in the Missouri town of Ferguson. This case received a huge public profile over allegations that police shot Brown to death, even when his hands were raised in the air. A Missouri police statement on the murder of Vonderrick Myers has reported that ‘the suspect continued to pull the trigger on the gun … we learned that that gun had malfunctioned and it was jammed’, yet the police officer responded with seventeen shots.

The murders of these two men raise concerns about racism and police brutality, particularly towards male African Americans. But it also epitomises the complete illogic of America’s second amendment – the right to bear arms. Myers may not have fired, but he did attempt to. Enabling citizens with the legal authority to carry around lethal weapons only endangers everyone further. It seems that these racially charged murders may have been aided by an environment of fear amongst police officers, making them more likely to draw their weapon in response.  However, fear is not and should not be an excuse or justification for murder.

The police officer who killed Myers retaliated with SEVENTEEN shots. Is this self-defence, or is this unadulterated murder? The boundaries between these two concepts are completely blurred under the American legal system. In 2013, George Zimmerman walked free for the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin under the ‘stand your ground clause’. This law, which is applied to 33 American states, permits an individual to use lethal force if they feel they are in danger.  Asides from the obvious racial dimension of this case, which is indeed too, a shocking failure within the American police and legal system, Zimmerman’s ability to shot a man to death, and then walk away a free man only stands to highlight how in American culture -legally, socially, ethnically, the use of firearms are justified, even encouraged. The ‘stands your ground’ clause only exists because many Americans view the use of firearms as a RIGHT. Human rights are impenetrable, fundamental rights given to all human beings simple because you are a human being – how can the use of a lethal weapon possibly come under this definition?

This alleged RIGHT doesn’t save lives, it takes them. It is not just unarmed black men that are falling victim to this American ‘right’ but all Americans, even children. The fatal shootings at Sandy Hook elementary school resulted in the murder of 47 people, mostly children, in Connecticut in December 2012. Since then, there have been 44 cases of school shootings. This would not happen, or not to such a horrifyingly frequent extent, if firearms were illegalised.  America needs to realise that this ‘right’ kills as easily as it protects. It’s time to start looking at the facts. Australia outlawed the right to firearms in 1996 after a mass murder at a Tasmanian seaside resort resulted in the murder of 35 people.  Over the next two decades, homicide in Australia has decreased by 59%, and suicide has decreased by 74%. Statistics do not lie – Australia is undoubtedly a safer country because of the outlawing of firearms. 

Brown is not the only case on an unarmed black male being killed by the police this year, John Crawford III was shot dead last month for allegedly picking up a firearm on display in a Walmart shop. 

What will it take for America to realise that carrying a lethal weapon is not a right, it’s a danger? Probably the death of countless more children, ethnic minorities and women. Even then I suspect that won’t be enough.