Ralph Jarl a teenager 16 years, He went to the wrong house to look for his younger twin brothers. Kaylin GillisA young woman 20 years, got into a car with some friends on the wrong private road. a friend Payton Washingtona ‘cheerleader’ 18 yearshad scrambled his car in the parking lot of a supermarket. Already Kinsley Whitea girl six yearsran away to the neighbor’s garden, where he played basketball with other children on the street. In almost every part of the world, four such trivial events would never make the news. But all four took place in the United States in six days and four years. answers to innocent mistakes became lead. In Gillis’ case, they cost her her life.
Even in a country where sadly used group shotsit would almost be said that he was drugged with his scourge. gun violence, all four incidents sparked bewilderment and, again, outrage. Although each case is unique, both its characteristics and state laws In the scenarios of these recent cases (Missouri, New York, Texas, and North Carolina) the rules governing gun possession and use, the group once again comes face to face with the United States. dark reality He didn’t hesitate to call it “.dystopian“Senator Chris Murphy is one of the most involved in the grueling and almost always unsuccessful struggle. gun controls in congress.
Guns and Self Defense Laws
in the USA at least 120 firearms per 100 people. In 2021, last year, with figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead about 49,000 deaths8% more than the previous year. And this is almost 80% of murders a staggering rate compared to, for example, 13% in Australia or 4% in the UK.
States have grown laws protecting self-defensestrengthens the call”castle doctrineBy approving laws known as “or granting protection to housing”stay where you are” (literally “defend your place”) takes this refuge outside the confines of private housing for self-defense. Florida He opened the season in 2005, about 30 states endorsed these latest regulations, which plays an important role in emergency situations and which analyzes and experts point to. problem.
According to a study published in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’ in 2022, ‘Stand your Ground’ laws, for example, monthly increase in murders between 8% and 11%. Caroline Light, author of a book on this regulation, told ‘USA Today’: “They less secure And raise the risks if an innocent mistake is made”.
Christopher Slobogin, professor of law at Vanderbilt University and director of the Criminal Justice program, also told the paper: Wild West People’s ability to respond to conflicts with deadly force, even when disproportionate to the threat.”
Crime, paranoia and dystopia
Other factors play a role in America’s unique situation. according to this Pandemic produced Nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice and one increase in crimeFor example, politicians and the media, especially conservativesthemselves a notice and exorbitant and excessive coverage. On the contrary real increase in violent crimes and murders with firearms, the guess is a apocalyptic image about the alleged country entering a hell of violence.
Gun lobby campaigns were added to all of this. And also an evolution in the motives that drove Americans to arm themselves. In Gallup polls in 2000 and 2005, about 66% of Americans said they had guns to protect themselves. 60% that I have them Huntin another 2021 survey, catch percentage dropped slightly, but catch percentage protection almost fired 90%. And Robert Spitzer, a professor at the State University of New York specializing in gun law, told Vox: “America’s gun culture combines the tradition of hunting for sport with the tradition of the militia and the frontier, but in modern times the hunting element has disappeared. highly politicized concept one who carries a gun expression of freedom, individuality, hostility to Government and self-preservation“.
The set feeds into what The New York Times describes as “”.poisonous cocktail of paranoia, insecurity and doubt An analysis that poisons many everyday interactions”, not just by the newspaper. “We are becoming a heavily armed nation, so fearful, angry and anxious alert happy HE murder with guns now the road we resolve our disappointments‘ condemned Murphy in the Senate on Wednesday. dystopia and something we choose for ourselves. It doesn’t have to be like that,” he said.
“We are a the country that hits first and asks laterHe also denounced John Feinblatt, head of the Everytown for Gun Safety group, which fights to intensify gun control.
Race
In one of the recent cases, Yarl’s was, according to officials, “a racial component“. It was the young black man who went to the wrong address in Kansas City that was supposed to pick up his brothers, and Andrew Lester, 84 year old white male About the person on trial for first degree injury, who shot first in the head and then in the arm, “frightened“Missouri has ‘Stay Your Place’ laws, such as laws that help clear the man who killed Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2013.
There were arrests and indictments in other cases as well. There are accusations against Kevin Monahan, 65, who accidentally set fire to cars and a motorcycle that drove into the driveway of his home in Hebron, New York. second degree murder For Gillis’ death. A criminal complaint has been filed against Pedro Tello Rodríguez, 25, who shot one of the ‘cheerleaders’ in a parking lot in Elgin (Texas) after they went to get into her car, mistaking it for her own. deadly reckless behavior.
And face to face four times assassination attempt Robert Louis Singletary is a 24-year-old man who surrendered in Florida on Thursday, two days after the basketball incident in Gaston County, North Carolina. Singletary shot little White, whose face was stripped by a bullet, and three others, including the father of the girl who was shot in the back and needed to be hospitalized.