Another mass shooting in a school in the US has left people reeling with another tragedy. With over 17 dead, the shooting at the St Douglas High School in Florida is the worst mass shooting at a high school in US history. The unfortunate fact is that there is something deeply wrong in American society, and a lot of it has to do with the country’s love affair with guns. Florida’s gun laws are some of the most lax, even by American standards. Individuals do not need a licence or permit to buy a gun in Florida. In the school shooting, the shooter was a troubled 19-year old who had been expelled from the same school over indiscipline. He had a history of explosive anger for which he was said to be receiving treatment. If this was not enough, subsequently he had posted a YouTube video last year in which he had said he was going to be a professional school shooter. The video was reportedly investigated by the FBI and no action was taken. After all of this history, this individual was able to get obtain a gun legally.
How can a society that has suffered so much gun violence in recent years continue to turn a blind eye to the source of the problem? We know that mass shootings are a uniquely American problem. America is failing its citizens – but they are also failing themselves. The country’s powerful gun lobbies seem to have convinced people that legal guns make them safer. And the superpower’s military adventurism abroad, domestic police action and general paranoid political discourse have produced a highly militarised society in any case. Police officers have no control over their triggers when they encounter unarmed African Americans. In fact, guns have become almost sacred in the US. Trump’s address to the nation post the Florida shooting incident did not mention ‘guns’ but spoke of ‘hatred and ‘evil’. These are words that only gloss over the reality of the situation. His emphasis on mental health, not gun control, makes the situation more obscure. But, then again, this is also a country where people continue to believe that mass shootings, like Sandy Hook, are conspiracies. American society must look deep into itself and change if it wants to protect its children. Such a militarised state and society cannot but produce uncontrollable violence.