Source: Daily Times.

Sabria Balland Chowdhury In the NRA’s recent press conference, they blamed gun massacres on everything from violent movies to video games but refused to take any responsibility whatsoever

We can certainly hope that the Sandy Hook school shootings in Connecticut have finally evoked a moral standing on the issues of gun possession and their use in the United States. It is definitely hoped that this tragic incident will be the final tipping point on gun control and the implementation of strict laws on assault weapons.

Many examples have been cited to compare the gun laws currently in existence in the US to those of other industrialised countries, where the laws on the subject are much stricter and the number of crimes resulting from them much lower. Among the examples consistently cited is Australia and how gun violence has been curbed successfully there. It is an interesting parallel to use because of the similarities between the two countries. Both possess wide-open spaces with a history of pioneers who had a historical attachment to bearing arms. Both countries also have laws governed by state governments and both have a history embedded in British colonialism. Furthermore, just like in Australia when strict gun laws were adopted in 1996, the majority of Americans do favour stricter gun controls.

However, the differences between the two countries on the subject are numerous. To begin with, the culture of carrying arms is widely practised in American society. Furthermore, although the Second Amendment of the US Constitution is grossly misinterpreted in today’s society to mean that individuals can walk around with dangerous weapons usually seen only in war zones, that debate does exist widely in the US. In contrast, there is no mention of arms in the Australian constitution. Interesting and valid points also to note are that there are no arms manufacturing industries on Australian territory and very significantly, there are no such intense lobbyists for guns as the American NRA in Australia. The key difference between pro-gun groups in the US and Australia is that in the former, it is not an argument that raises individual libertarian concerns. The Australian pro-gun groups are more associated with liberties related to hunting and agriculture rather than the ‘right’ to self-defence.

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