Murder On Air: As U.S. Battles
Violence Abroad, it Promotes it at Home (La Jornada, Mexico)
"Beyond
the necessary revision of a U.S. regulatory framework that allows unrestricted
gun ownership, episodes like this expose the distorted perception of security threats
on the part of U.S. authorities, representatives and most of the inhabitants of
that country: while the authorities continue an anti-terrorist crusade against
expressions of violence that occur thousands of miles away, for example –
operations to combat Islamic State, there is a conspicuous absence of concrete
and effective measures to detect and contain cases of mentally ill individuals
that often result in exasperating shootings and massacres like this one."
Two journalists - a reporter and a cameraman - were killed Wednesday
in Virginia, in a shooting during a live newscast for local station WDBJ-TV. The assailant, identified as former employee the
company had fired - Vester Flanagan - according
to authorities, died a few hours later as a result of self-inflicted gunshot
wounds.
The incident has sparked a wave of indignation in our neighbor
to the north. Obama Administration spokesman Josh Earnest deplored the tragic
attack and urged Congress to take commonsense measures to prevent such
incidents, which are all-too-frequent in the United States.
Indeed, recurrent heart-rending episodes of violence that sow
terror and anxiety throughout U.S. society are as indisputable as the excessive
proliferation of firearms in the hands of people in our neighboring country.
They are encouraged by legal factors, like the anachronistic Second Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution, and cultural ones, such as the warmongering and spirit
of violence instilled in the population by recent governments of that country, most
notably the one led by George W. Bush.
However, beyond the necessary revision of a U.S. regulatory
framework that allows unrestricted gun ownership, episodes like this expose the
distorted perception of security threats on the part of U.S. authorities,
representatives and most of the inhabitants of that country: while the
authorities continue an anti-terrorist crusade against expressions of violence that
occur thousands of miles away, for example – operations to combat Islamic State,
there is a conspicuous absence of concrete and effective measures to detect and
contain cases of mentally ill individuals that often result in exasperating shootings
and massacres like this one.
The 'Unbridled Arms Race' Among U.S. Citizens (La Jornada, Mexico)
Significantly, the same weapons complex that drives the battle
against real and fictional national security threats abroad strongly opposes restrictions
on the possession of weapons by civilians at home. Overcoming this double
standard is necessary if this worrying cycle of domestic violence, which
disrupts the tranquility of a country held out as a model of civility to the rest
of the world, is to be reversed.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
Moreover, when it comes to the proliferation of firearms
among civilian populations, the U.S. experience should be seen as negative
reference point for nations like ours. Significantly, the incident in Virginia
coincides with the first
conference of State Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty [in Cancun, Mexico],
which seeks to lay the foundation for the proper control and trade of these
devices and the fostering of a better atmosphere for peace, as Foreign Minister
Jose Antonio Meade said yesterday. While recognizing the need to regulate and
control the international flow of weapons, such a treaty must not be permitted
to result in the growth and consolidation of a domestic market in legalized
weapons. In the case of our country, this would make things more difficult for the
security services, likely end up enhancing the firepower of organized crime,
and even make possible a proliferation of individual episodes of violence like those
that occur in the United States. In this area, it is desirable that the
authorities of our country ponder the image reflected by our next door neighbor
and with necessary caution, act accordingly.
