600 mass shootings through November 22 this year, but America is still cocking its guns

More Americans are getting killed by sporadic shooting incidents back home than in the war zones, yet the arms lobby and gun owners resist it with all their might. America’s shameful tradition of gun violence once again took the lives of innocent people at Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia. At least six people were killed in the store, according to local officials, with four battling for lives in the hospital. The Walmart shooting comes just three weeks after a shooting incident at the University of Virginia that left three dead, and, even more recently, a shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub that left five dead. These incidents have naturally jolted every American but there are many who would defend their right to keep a gun. The gun debate rages in the US as the government can’t do much about it as any presidential decree may be blocked in the Congress. Many Americans hold their right to bear arms, enshrined in the US Constitution, as sacrosanct. But others say that right threatens another: the right to life.

Each shooting seems to embolden each side with new arguments and counter arguments coming up after every debate. The gun owners lobby would have us believe to stop this menace more guns is the solution, every one defending himself as criminals would always have guns. On other hand the counter argument is that in most shooting incidents common people having no criminal background were involved, for instance, the manager of Walmart was involved in the latest shooting incident. In an all too familiar cycle, a shooting will prompt some to push for more gun control and others to lobby for less firearm regulation. A tense debate plays out before the issue fades from the national conversation. President Joe Biden has  called for congressional action, but the reality of a divided Congress from January makes this unlikely. “This year, I signed the most significant gun reform in a generation, but that is not nearly enough. We must take greater action,” the president said in a statement. Statistically the states with weaker gun laws have higher rates of gun deaths, including homicides, suicides and accidental killings, according to a January study published by Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit on gun violence prevention. Yet the political debate on gun control in America is not on rational grounds but is highly emotive. There have been at least 607 mass shootings through November 22 this year. How many more no one knows as America cannot control its guns.