Death Lottery...

The sad event in Newtown, Connecticut, where one student gunned down scores of kids and a few teachers still smolders the question as to what could have been done to avoid such events. While the world grieves the death of the innocents, a honest soul searching needs to be done by the Americans to establish how best a repeat may be avoided. Several voices are already rising in support and in opposition to the lax Gun control laws in the country. 

Going through the Washington post article, one learns that so far, thirteen incidents of mass shootings have taken place in the US during 2012. With a total casualty of little less than a hundred lives and the number of injured being slightly higher. Shockingly, about half of these deaths were caused by use of Automatic weapons. 

An automatic firearm reloads itself and keeps firing until the trigger is released. Pretty deadly stuff.

These are shocking numbers. Especially so, since they have happened in “The world’s most advanced nation”. 

Probably simplistic, but in this blogger’s view, the easy availability of guns (and automatic weapons) are dangerous time-bombs waiting to fall into wrong hands. 

While sadly, there will always be a few disturbed / disgruntled / deranged individuals around, still, if they have easy access to such deadly weapons, the magnitude of the tragedy can be multifold. Over 80 dead since Jan 2012, That is big I!!

The obvious solution is to lock such weapons away from the civilians, and then look for long term answers so as to address their malady. But currently, it is oh-so-very-easy to get a gun legally in the US, thanks to some lax and some really weird laws.

A 10-year old can legally buy a gun in the US: Curiously, US federal law allows all individuals above 18 to possess handguns, and has no minimum age for long gun possession!!!??? So, nearly 30 states have NO minimum age for long gun possession. So, maybe a ten-year old kid can legally obtain a gun. 

More weird laws? Click here.

What sort of stupor causes democratically elected lawmaker to pass such laws? But maybe its less of stupidity, and more of money power. 

Knowledgeable people tell me that a lot of Americans have a deep love for their firearms. And this large, powerful and wealthy lobby makes sure that sense and wisdom continues to evade the lawmakers. Seems, democracy has its failings after all. 

It seems amply clear to one that so long as easy access to automatic and semi-automatic weapons will be available, such events may keep on happening. And nobody is safe. Its a 

So for poor civilians, every day is a death lottery, till Mr. Obama and his guys brings in some REAL CHANGE...