Everyday we hear incidents of gun violence and the consequential deaths in various parts of the world. And more precisely, the sad part is semi-automatic guns have been used in lots of incidents, that too by teenagers / youngsters. These incidents result in loss of innocent lives of all ages at all kinds of locations- schools / malls / playgrounds.
Statistics: Here are the top 5 countries of the world with number of victims of gun homicides (Source: UN2023):
Mexico : 22355
USA : 15186
Ecuador: 7108
Honduras : 2464
Jamaica : 1189
Number of deaths due to gun violence depends primarily on the type of gun / firearm ownership laws- restricted or unrestricted and also, the severity of punishment for owning an unlicensed weapon.
Gun Fight Vs. Knife Fight: Here is a simple comparison of Gun fight Vs. Knife Fight:
Gun fight or violence results in quicker and higher number of deaths and injuries. Attacker can be of any age even as young as 14 year old. There have been incidents where teenage students used assault rifles on a killing spree in school yards and malls. Not only that, the attack can be done from a distance with high speed and accuracy.
On the other hand, knife fight or attack requires the attacker to be physically strong and in close proximity to the people being attacked. Secondly, the speed and severity of attack is much lower in knife violence than gun violence.
What I am trying to say is logically and statistically the number of casualities are much higher with gun shots than the incidents involving stabbings.
Gun Ownership- Rights and Responsibilities: There is a fundamental principle of management – rights and responsibilities go together. Generally, we are more aware of our rights than responsibilities/accountabilities attached.
We quote examples from constitution and other statutes permitting the right to bear arms and having licensed firearms in our possession. The second part of the same constitution or law also requires firearm owners to exercise care for the safety of others and must store and handle firearms safely.
Based on the number of incidents and casualities due to gun violence, it looks like there is a problem with taking care of the second part of the law – storage and handling of firearms for care and safety of others.
For the above reason, now and then we come across incidents involving a minor using a semi-automatic gun on innocents in the school or playgrounds or other places.
The only obvious explanation is that the access to fireams by a teenager is because the owner of the firearm in the house (be one of the parents or other licensed person in the family) did not take care in storage of the firearm. Although there are fines and penalties in the law but looks like they are not severe enough to deter him to be really vigilant.
Per my view, here are various options starting from most preferred to least preferred w.r.t. the law of ownership of firearms and the liabilities of the owner in default of care and custody of the firearms:
– 100% Ban on ownership of fireams by civilians (most preferred). Respective governments should provide an attractive buy-back programs to civilians to return their firearms;
– Restricted ownership of firearms as per constitution or law. However, there should be severe provision w.r.t. criminal prosecution as well as civil liabilities. Civil liabilities of high monetary value on the owner of the firearm will help in better care and storage of firearm. This will be a better deterrent than some fines and penalties.