Only a few blocks away from the US Capitol in Washington, in the heavily guarded US Naval Sea System Command headquarters thirteen civilian and contract workers were killed when two shooters entered the building and opened fire. Police and federal agents were informed and surrounded the base. All streets leading to the base were cordoned off. The first shooter was identified as veteran Navy reservist Aaron Alexis while investigation on the second gunman continues. After the incident, a sombre President Obama paid homage to the “patriots” – who “know the dangers of serving abroad”, but also faced “unimaginable violence they wouldn’t have expected at home”. US flags flew at half-mast, on Friday.
'Unexpected' would not be the most accurate description for America’s violent gun problem. Mass shootings in 2012 alone were a damning indictment of the national crisis on the possession of arms: schoolchildren killed in Sandy Hook, people attacked at a local theater in Aurora, devotees shot and killed at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, citizens assaulted in California and, other recent incidents are only some of the instances of gun crime that took place last year. Missing from this timeline of growing gun violence are the victims of gang war from racially gentrified neighborhoods.
The Second Amendment in the US Constitution signifies a citizen’s right to own and arm himself against potential threats of violence. There is favour and opposition by Republicans and Democrats both, on the issue of possession of weapons. However, powerful pro-arms lobbies, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), successfully resist debate on the curtailing of arms ownership. Opposition to the reckless amassing of guns should not be seen as an offence to the Constitution or the Founding Fathers of the United States. There is enough reason and logic, along with growing proof, that administrative discipline of guns ownership will only help to preserve the values and people of America, and not otherwise, as the NRA would have Americans believe.