Editorial - Only one solution to the US gun problem
2018-03-01 17:05:00 -
Editorial
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The school shooting in Parkland, Florida has reignited debates on gun control in the US.

 

The Second Amendment enshrined in the US Constitution protects people’s “right to keep and bear arms”. Seventeen  people were killed in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by a gunman who, in exercise of his rights, acquired a number of highly destructive weapons without challenge.

 

While Nikolas Cruz is to be fully blamed for the massacre of his former schoolmates, it is important that we accept that there were other failures contributing to this tragedy.

 

The FBI has acknowledged that warnings about the gunman were ignored. Media reports said calls made to local authorities in 2016 and 2017 with concerns about Cruz, especially one which stated he was preparing to attack the school, were overlooked. 

 

It is believed that the school’s video surveillance system relayed information 20 minutes late to police, which gave wrong location of the gunman. It also emerged that the police officer in charge of the school’s security did not intervene during the shooting despite being outside the building.

 

The US needs to urgently find ways of preventing school shootings which have become too rampant. President Trump’s solution of arming teachers, no doubt influenced by powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby, is definitely not the way forward.

 

Metro Éireann is adamant that bringing more arms into schools would only make them less secure. Moreover, what the US needs is proper gun control, such that no-one has such easy access to the semi-automatic weapons never envisaged by those who wrote the Second Amendment.


news@metroeireann.com


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